In what ways can proper commenting and documentation improve the readability and understanding of PHP code for both beginners and experienced developers?

Proper commenting and documentation in PHP code can improve readability and understanding for both beginners and experienced developers by providing clear explanations of the code's purpose, functionality, and any potential pitfalls. Comments can help to clarify complex logic or algorithms, describe input and output parameters, and highlight important details that may not be immediately obvious from the code itself. 

<?php

// This function calculates the factorial of a given number
function factorial($n) {
    // Check if the input is a non-negative integer
    if (!is_int($n) || $n < 0) {
        return "Invalid input";
    }
    
    // Calculate the factorial recursively
    if ($n == 0) {
        return 1;
    } else {
        return $n * factorial($n - 1);
    }
}

// Example usage
echo factorial(5); // Output: 120
?>

Keywords

PHP commenting documentation readability understanding

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