Question

I am doing Android programming and was learning about Intents, when I saw a constructor that, to my C# trained mind, seemed funky. The call was:

Intent myIntent = new Intent(CurrentActivity.this, NextActivity.class);

Both of the parameters are new to me. How is there a static “.this” off of a Class Name? Is this a Java thing or an Android thing? I am assuming that it is the same as just saying “this”, since I am in the context of CurrentActivity, but I don’t get how the “this” can be called off of the Class name itself. Also. The “.class” looks like it is used for reflection, which I am familiar with in C#, but any insight into this would be welcomed as well.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Usually, you can use only this. But, sometimes this makes reference to an inner class… so, for example:

Button button = (Button)findViewById(R.id.ticket_details_sell_ticket);
button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {
        // it will be wrong to use only "this", because it would
        // reference the just created OnClickListener object
        Intent login = new Intent(ClassName.this, Login.class);
        startActivityForResult(login, LOGIN_REQUEST);
    }
});