Question

What is the difference between:

public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public Person(string name)
    {
        this.Name = name;
    }
}



public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public Person(string name)
    {
        Name = name;
    }
}

Don’t they both do the exact same thing?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes, they do. In the second code sample the “this” is implicit. When you use the “this.” you are being more explicit in saying that you are referring to a instance member.

There are times when you need to use the this keyword. For example:

public class Person
{
    public string name;

    public Person(string name)
    {
        this.name = name;
    }
}

Without the “this” here the compiler wouldn’t know you mean the instance field.