Question

In a rather limiting context I need to reference a static class field from a constructor that has a variable named with the same name as the static field. Here is an example to illustrate, which also includes a non-static field to highlight the fact that for non-static fields one can use “this” to reference the class-field:

public class Example () {

    private static DateTime firstInstance;
    private static DateTime referenceInstance;

    private String Name;

    static Example() {
        first=DateTime.Now;
    }

    public Example(String Name, DateTime referenceInstance) {
        this.Name=Name;
        referenceInstance=referenceInstance;
    }
}

How can one access the “referenceInstance” static field without the “this” keyword as one does with “Name”? In a perfect world I would just refactor either the class variable or the constrictor variable to have a different identifier, however for a rather technical reason (printing documentation) neither can be changed here.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Fully qualify the static variable name in the constructor.

public Example(String Name, DateTime referenceInstance) {
 this.Name=Name;
 Example.referenceInstance=referenceInstance;
}