Question

I’ve recently spent a lot of time with javascript and am now coming back to C++. When I’m accessing a class member from a method I feed inclined to prefix it with this->.

class Foo {

  int _bar;

public:  
  /* ... */

  void setBar(int bar) {
    this->_bar = bar;
    // as opposed to
    _bar = bar;
  }
}

On reading, it saves me a brain cycle when trying to figure out where it’s coming from.
Are there any reasons I shouldn’t do this?

Answer 1

Using this-> for class variables is perfectly acceptable.

However, don’t start identifiers with an underscore, or include any identifiers with double underscore __ anywhere. There are some classes of reserved symbols that are easy to hit if you violate either of these two rules of thumb. (In particular, _IdentifierStartingWithACapital is reserved by the standard for compilers).