Tuneable laser diodes were characterized and compared for use as tuneable sources in gas absorption spectroscopy. Specifically, the characteristics of monolithic widely tuneable single frequency lasers, such as sampled grating distributed Bragg reflector laser and modulated grating Y-branch laser diodes, recently developed for optical communications, with operating wavelengths in the 1,520 nm<or=lambda<or=1,570 nm are compared. The assessment also includes an external cavity laser and a distributed feedback laser for water vapour detection, both emitting at 935 nm. Characteristics investigated include side-mode suppression ratio, ease of tuning, tuning range, spectral emission linewidth, frequency stability and wavelength modulation. While some characteristics differ significantly across the range of lasers, each device has a number of useful intrinsic qualities for gas sensing. Specifically, the modulated grating Y laser and the sampled grating DBR laser have wide quasi-continuous tuneability (30-40 nm) and display relatively low residual amplitude noise when grating-modulated in a harmonic detection scheme. They are particularly suitable for multi-gas sensing. ECLs are also capable of wide quasi-continuous tuneability (100 nm) but their architecture renders them unsuitable for gas sensing application outside a controlled laboratory environment. DFB devices are by far the easiest with which to work but their modest tuneability (4 nm maximum by temperature) almost invariably limits their use to single gas sensing applications.