PHP commenting standards

I need to comment massive amounts of information in only a handful of files, and when I look around Google and here at Stack Overflow, I continue to find results matching coding standards, when I need commenting standards. My coding matches most coding standards, except when it comes to commenting.

What would be examples for the following?

<?

    // Beginning of file comments

    require( 'filename.php' ); // Require or include, with filename

    public class Test { } // Class without constructor

    public class Test // Class with constructor, if different from above
    {
        public function __constructor() { } // Constructor, no parameters

        public function __constructor(var1, var2) { } constructor, with parameters

        public function func1() { } // Function, no parameters

        public function func2($var1, $var2) { } // Function, with parameters

        public function func3( $optional = '' ) { } // Function, optional parameters

        private function func4() { } // Private function, if different from above

        public static staticfunc1() { } // Public static function, if different from above

        public function returnfunc1(var1, var2) // Tunction, with return value
        {
            return var1 + var2; // Return statement, dynamic
        }

        public function returnfunc2() // Function, with unchanging return value, if different from above
        {
            return 1; // Return statement, unchanging, if different from above
        }

        public function fullfunc1() // Declaration, calling and assignment, in function
        {
            $var1; // Variable declaration

            $arr1 = array(); // Array declaration, if different from above

            $var2 = dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/file.ext'; // Variable assignment

            $this->var1 = $path . '_'; // Class variable assignment

            ob_start(); // Function call

            $this->func1(); // Class function call

            ob_end_clean();

            foreach($arr as $key => $val) { } // 'foreach' and 'for' loops
        }

        public $var1; // Public variable

        private $var2; // Private variable, if different from above
    }

    // Ending of file comments?

?>

Knowing proper style is important. It helps other individuals understand how your code works, and how to use it in the future if you are not there to explain it.

Answer

In general, PHP seems to have a lot of different style guides…

1. phpDocumentor style
2. Zend Framework style
3. Pear style

But in general, something to remember about commenting is… you probably don’t want to comment every line in your code. Instead, try to make your code readable¹ (as is.) And comment (mostly,) when you really need someone else to understand what your code is doing.

¹ http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/07/coding-without-comments.html