Q.State True or False. "Comments are not executed by interpreter."

Concept: The role of comments in program execution.

Comments are annotations written in source code for human readers — they explain logic, document assumptions, or clarify intent. Every programming language provides a syntax to mark text as a comment (e.g., # in Python, // in C++, <!-- --> in HTML).

When the interpreter or compiler processes the source file, it identifies comment delimiters and ignores everything within them. Comments are stripped out during the parsing phase and never translated into bytecode or machine instructions. They exist solely in the source code, not in the runtime environment. …

Why comments exist in the first place

When you write code, you're communicating with two audiences: the machine (which executes instructions) and other humans (including your future self) who need to understand why you made certain choices. Comments are annotations written in plain language that the interpreter or compiler deliberately skips over. They have zero effect on program behavior.

Think of comments as margin notes in a textbook — helpful for the reader, but the printing press doesn't "execute" them when producing the book.

How interpreters handle comments

Every programming language defines a syntax for comments (e.g., # in Python, // in C++, /* ... */ in Java). During the parsing phase, the interpreter or compiler recognizes these markers and strips out everything marked as a comment before generating executable instructions.

1. Lexical analysis: The interpreter scans the source code character by character. When it encounters a comment delimiter, it skips all subsequent characters until the comment ends (end of line for single-line comments, closing delimiter for multi-line).

2. No bytecode generation: Comments never make it into the intermediate representation (bytecode in Python, for instance) or machine code. They're discarded before execution begins.

3. Runtime: By the time your program runs, comments have vanished entirely from the interpreter's view. Only executable statements remain. …