When should I use “this” in a class?

Question

I know that this refers to a current object. But I do not know when I really need to use it. For example, will be there any difference if I use x instead of this.x in some of the methods? May be x will refer to a variable which is local for the considered method? I mean variable which is seen only in this method.

What about this.method()? Can I use it? Should I use it. If I just use method(), will it not be, by default, applied to the current object?

Answer 1

The second important use of this (beside hiding with a local variable as many answers already say) is when accessing an outer instance from a nested non-static class:

public class Outer {
  protected int a;

  public class Inner {
    protected int a;

    public int foo(){
      return Outer.this.a;
    }

    public Outer getOuter(){
      return Outer.this;
    }
  }
}

Answer 2

Unless you have overlapping variable names, its really just for clarity when you're reading the code.

Answer 3

There are a lot of good answers, but there is another very minor reason to put this everywhere. If you have tried opening your source codes from a normal text editor (e.g. notepad etc), using this will make it a whole lot clearer to read.

Imagine this:

public class Hello {
    private String foo;

    // Some 10k lines of codes

    private String getStringFromSomewhere() {
        // ....
    }

    // More codes

    public class World {
        private String bar;

        // Another 10k lines of codes

        public void doSomething() {
            // More codes
            foo = "FOO";
            // More codes
            String s = getStringFromSomewhere();
            // More codes
            bar = s;
        }
    }
}

This is very clear to read with any modern IDE, but this will be a total nightmare to read with a regular text editor.

You will struggle to find out where foo resides, until you use the editor's "find" function. Then you will scream at getStringFromSomewhere() for the same reason. Lastly, after you have forgotten what s is, that bar = s is going to give you the final blow.

Compare it to this:

public void doSomething() {
    // More codes
    Hello.this.foo = "FOO";
    // More codes
    String s = Hello.this.getStringFromSomewhere();
    // More codes
    this.bar = s;
}

1. You know foo is a variable declared in outer class Hello.
2. You know getStringFromSomewhere() is a method declared in outer class as well.
3. You know that bar belongs to World class, and s is a local variable declared in that method.

Of course, whenever you design something, you create rules. So while designing your API or project, if your rules include "if someone opens all these source codes with a notepad, he or she should shoot him/herself in the head," then you are totally fine not to do this.

Answer 4

Google turned up a page on the Sun site that discusses this a bit.

You're right about the variable; this can indeed be used to differentiate a method variable from a class field.

    private int x;
    public void setX(int x) {
        this.x=x;
    }

However, I really hate that convention. Giving two different variables literally identical names is a recipe for bugs. I much prefer something along the lines of:

    private int x;
    public void setX(int newX) {
        x=newX;
    }

Same results, but with no chance of a bug where you accidentally refer to x when you really meant to be referring to x instead.

As to using it with a method, you're right about the effects; you'll get the same results with or without it. Can you use it? Sure. Should you use it? Up to you, but given that I personally think it's pointless verbosity that doesn't add any clarity (unless the code is crammed full of static import statements), I'm not inclined to use it myself.

Answer 5

To make sure that the current object's members are used. Cases where thread safety is a concern, some applications may change the wrong objects member values, for that reason this should be applied to the member so that the correct object member value is used.

If your object is not concerned with thread safety then there is no reason to specify which object member's value is used.