When should I use “this” in a class?

Question

I know that this refers to a current object. But I do not know when I really need to use it. For example, will be there any difference if I use x i

Answer 1

Google turned up a page on the Sun site that discusses this a bit.

You're right about the variable; this can indeed be used to differentiate a method variable from a class field.

    private int x;
    public void setX(int x) {
        this.x=x;
    }

However, I really hate that convention. Giving two different variables literally identical names is a recipe for bugs. I much prefer something along the lines of:

    private int x;
    public void setX(int newX) {
        x=newX;
    }

Same results, but with no chance of a bug where you accidentally refer to x when you really meant to be referring to x instead.

As to using it with a method, you're right about the effects; you'll get the same results with or without it. Can you use it? Sure. Should you use it? Up to you, but given that I personally think it's pointless verbosity that doesn't add any clarity (unless the code is crammed full of static import statements), I'm not inclined to use it myself.