FAQ: Compile & Execute - Comments

This community-built FAQ covers the “Comments” exercise from the lesson “Compile & Execute”.

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This exercise can be found in the following Codecademy content:

Learn C++

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it keeps saying that spell.cpp was moved but every time I reset the exercise it does not get spell.cpp back.

1 Like

Hi!
I was just going through lesson 4 of C++ and I have a question. As it says in the lesson, // is used of comments on one line of the program, but what if the comment written after // is longer than a line and reaches two or three lines, would there be an error or would the program still run as normal?

1 Like

as long as you just let it linewrap you’ll be fine, if you hit return, you’ll get an error. Common practice is to limit your code line length to around 80 characters.

guyyyyys how should i compile and excute !

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hello, i was going through 4 lesson of C++ and i got a doubt what would be the change if we write //print “harry potter” instead of //harry potter ??

Why we name the executable file of spell.cpp as spell? Why not anything else such as SP or ttp etc?

I am really not happy with these tutorials. No detailed explanations on what to do and no help.

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What is the difference between doing
g++ spell.cpp then ./a.out
vs.
g++ spell.cpp -o spell then ./spell
Are these two actions the same? Is there a difference? Does it matter?

This might be a dumb question, but why didn’t the code write “expecto patronum”?

1 Like

It wont get any response.
the line you write after //print"Harry Potter" or /* harry potter */ wont be read by the compiler
this comments were used to make the statement more legible to other people who reads it.

g++ is used to compile the program. spell.cpp or any (speak.cpp)is the file in which you edit codes. cpp is the extension
-o is okay for the machine code in which you store the machine language of your program. spell is the machine language storage space here. and at last you are executing what you have mentioned.

Hey there! When I’m going to execute my file after adding the comment, the comment doesn’t show on the terminal. Is it meant to only be seen just in the file alone or show should I see the comment in the terminal as well. Thanks.

Compile and execute spell.cpp using the terminal.

The above instruction allows learners to assume they can type g++ spell.cpp -o spell or g++ spell.cpp, however the former was incorrect when I used it despite technically being correct. I would suggest allowing both to be written or specify how you would like it users to compile the file.

1 Like

yes comments are not to show on the terminal. They only add petty notes to your code for future referencing or to explain what your code does to other developers

so as the hint suggests, I try imputing “g++ spell.cpp -o spell” to name it but the ‘g’ gets flagged for some reason. I try being a little more simple by just putting in “g++ spell.cpp” but yet again the ‘g’ gets flagged. I even tried “./spell.cpp” just incase but it says access denied. please help because I cant move on.

wait, nvm it says I passed it anyway besides the errors