Question

Is the following usage of “this” to refer to an instance variable in the current class acceptable? In PHP this is how you would have to do it, but I noticed in Java you can just call the variable by name directly.

I personally find “this.variable” to be more understandable but I don’t want to develop bad coding habits if that isn’t normal.

Thanks!

public class MyClass {  

    /**
     * Private variable
     */
    private int myInt;

    /**
     * Setter method
     */
    public void setMyInt(int value) {
        this.myInt = value;
    }   
}

Answer 1

Like people have been saying, its not required, but it is acceptable.

That being said it is necessary if you’re doing something like this:

private int value;

public void setValue(int value) {
     this.value = value;
}

Which differentiates between the class variable and the parameter with the same name. I find myself using this pattern in almost every setter I make, and is about the only time I use the ‘this’ keyword.