What is the meaning of “this” in Java?

Question

Normally, I use this in constructors only.

I understand that it is used to identify the parameter variable (by using this.something), if i

Answer 1

It refers to the current instance of a particular object, so you could write something like

public Object getMe() {
    return this;
}

---

A common use-case of this is to prevent shadowing. Take the following example:

public class Person {
    private final String name;

    public Person(String name) {
        // how would we initialize the field using parameter?
        // we can't do: name = name;
    }
}

In the above example, we want to assign the field member using the parameter's value. Since they share the same name, we need a way to distinguish between the field and the parameter. this allows us to access members of this instance, including the field.

public class Person {
    private final String name;

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