Which of the following best describes comments in code?

Comments in code serve as annotations that provide explanations or insights about the code to human readers. They are not executed as part of the program, which is why they are ignored by the compiler. This feature allows developers to document their code, making it easier to understand for themselves and for others who may read or maintain the code in the future.

In contrast, while some comments may need to follow specific formatting rules (like starting with a particular symbol or keyword in certain programming languages), this is not universally true across all programming languages. Additionally, comments do not alter the execution of the program and do not have any effect on code behavior. Therefore, the statement that comments are ignored by the compiler accurately captures the fundamental function of comments in programming.