- * \def U_ALIGN_CODE
- * This is used to align code fragments to a specific byte boundary.
- * This is useful for getting consistent performance test results.
- * @internal
+ * This value is intended for sentinel values for APIs that
+ * (take or) return single code points (UChar32).
+ * It is outside of the Unicode code point range 0..0x10ffff.
+ *
+ * For example, a "done" or "error" value in a new API
+ * could be indicated with U_SENTINEL.
+ *
+ * ICU APIs designed before ICU 2.4 usually define service-specific "done"
+ * values, mostly 0xffff.
+ * Those may need to be distinguished from
+ * actual U+ffff text contents by calling functions like
+ * CharacterIterator::hasNext() or UnicodeString::length().
+ *
+ * @return -1
+ * @see UChar32
+ * @stable ICU 2.4