Question

I have a question about the this operator in Java. In the case where a programmer would write a code like this:

private int counter;

public Incrementor(int counter){
this.counter = counter;
}

Would it be better to avoid shadowing effect and go with this:

private int counter;

public Incrementor(int startValue){
counter = startValue;
}

Wouldn’t the this operator make the this operator obsolete in future programming execrises?

Answer 1

The “this” keyword is very useful. Your example is clear, but imagine the situation in which you have to pass a self reference to another method of an external object.