Question

I’m reading a book about java. It just got to explaining how you create a class called “deck” which contains an array of cards as its instance variable(s). Here is the code snippit:

class Deck { 
    Card[] cards; 
    public Deck (int n) { 
        cards = new Card[n]; 
    } 
} 

why isn’t the this. command used?

for example why isn’t the code this:

class Deck { 
    Card[] cards; 
    public Deck (int n) { 
       this.cards = new Card[n];
    }
}

Answer 1

this. is implicit.

In general, it’s a best practice (at least I consider it one) to only use this when absolutely necessary. When you have a local variable named cards and a member variable named cards, for example, you’ll need this.cards to refer to the member variable, as cards refers to the local variable.

In such a case, this is a good idea (although it might be a better idea to rename the member variable).

In every other case, where an implicit this can work, use it.