diff --git a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/impl/StringRange.java b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/impl/StringRange.java
index 9b52085d81f..f66f44c3581 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/impl/StringRange.java
+++ b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/impl/StringRange.java
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ public class StringRange {
 
     /**
      * Compact the set of strings.
-     * @param source
+     * @param source set of strings
      * @param adder adds each pair to the output. See the {@link Adder} interface.
      * @param shorterPairs use abc-d instead of abc-abd
      * @param moreCompact use a more compact form, at the expense of more processing. If false, source must be sorted.
@@ -101,9 +101,9 @@ public class StringRange {
     
     /**
      * Faster but not as good compaction. Only looks at final codepoint.
-     * @param source
-     * @param adder
-     * @param shorterPairs
+     * @param source set of strings
+     * @param adder adds each pair to the output. See the {@link Adder} interface.
+     * @param shorterPairs use abc-d instead of abc-abd
      */
     public static void compact(Set<String> source, Adder adder, boolean shorterPairs) {
         compact(source,adder,shorterPairs,false);
@@ -166,10 +166,7 @@ public class StringRange {
             }
         }
         public boolean merge(int pivot, Ranges other) {
-//            if (this.toString().equals("afz")) {
-//                int debug = 0;
-//            }
-           // we will merge items if the pivot is adjacent, and all other ranges are equal
+           // We merge items if the pivot is adjacent, and all later ranges are equal.
            for (int i = ranges.length-1; i >= 0; --i) {
                if (i == pivot) {
                    if (ranges[i].max != other.ranges[i].min-1) { // not adjacent
diff --git a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/UnicodeSet.java b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/UnicodeSet.java
index 1f4abe58d24..c690878fe85 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/UnicodeSet.java
+++ b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/UnicodeSet.java
@@ -2432,17 +2432,17 @@ public class UnicodeSet extends UnicodeFilter implements Iterable<String>, Compa
         return this;
     }
 
-    // Add constants to make the code easier to follow
+    // Add constants to make the applyPattern() code easier to follow.
 
-    static final int LAST0_START = 0, 
+    private static final int LAST0_START = 0, 
             LAST1_RANGE = 1, 
             LAST2_SET = 2;
 
-    static final int MODE0_NONE = 0, 
+    private static final int MODE0_NONE = 0, 
             MODE1_INBRACKET = 1, 
             MODE2_OUTBRACKET = 2;
 
-    static final int SETMODE0_NONE = 0, 
+    private static final int SETMODE0_NONE = 0, 
             SETMODE1_UNICODESET = 1, 
             SETMODE2_PROPERTYPAT = 2, 
             SETMODE3_PREPARSED = 3;