Question

When should the keyword ‘this’ be used within C# class definitions?

Is it standard to use the form ‘this.Method()’ from within class? Or to just use ‘Method()’? I have seen both, and usually go with the second choice, but I would like to learn more about this subject.

Answer 1

Most of the time it is redundant and can be omitted; a few exceptions:

• to call a chained constructor: Foo() : this('bar') {}
• to disambiguate between a local argument/variable and a field: this.foo = foo; etc
• to call an extension method on the current instance: this.SomeMethod(); (where defined as public static SomeMethod(this Foo foo) {...})
• to pass a reference to the current instance to an external method: Helper.DoSomething(this);