What tags can I use to document my code?

Question

I’m looking for better ways to document my code in Netbeans.

Besides the tags known and used in Javadoc something caught my attention and aroused my curiosity.

When typing {@ some suggestions of documentation with tags I’ve never seen and I don’t know what it’s for. Some:

{@code}
{@docRoot}
{@link}
{@linkplain}
{@literal}

{@link} would be a tag replacement @link? What are these other tags for?

Answer 1

You can get a list of major tags of Javadoc on Wikipedia or may obtain in the official documentation.

Tag	Description	Where to use
@Author	Designer the author of the code	Class, Interface, Enum
@version	Specifies the software version	Class, Interface, Enum
@Since	Initial date of functionality	Class, Interface, Enum Field, Method
@see	Link to another part of the documentation	Class, Interface, Enum Field, Method
@stop	Describes a method parameter	Method
@Return	Describes the return of a method	Method
@Exception	Describes an exception to be cast	Method
@throws	The same as the previous *	Method
@deprecated	Indicates that the method is obsolete	Method
{@inheritDoc}	Copies the description of the parent method	Overriding Method
{@link Reference}	Establishes a link to some resource	Class, Interface, Enum Field, Method
{@value #STATIC FIELD}	Describes a static grave	Static Field

* Usually the tag throws is preferred when the method is checked Exception.

These are the recommendations. Obviously you can use as you want. Many people do not like to use certain tags that do not add relevant information to the documentation. Author is the most obvious of them. Authorship control and creation date should be controlled by version control software. But it depends on the culture of each team.