Please explain “this” to me

Question

I\'ve read hundreds of explanations on \"this\" in java and I\'m really having trouble grasping it. I\'m learning android and java side-by-side, I know it\'s harder that wa

Answer 1

Instance methods (those not declared static) of a class can only be executed by reference to some instance of the class. For example:

class Foo {
    public void doSomething() {
        // "this" refers to the current object
        . . .
    }
    . . .
}

// then later:
Foo aFoo = new Foo();
aFoo.doSomething(); // "this" will be equal to "aFoo" for this call

// The following is illegal:
doSomething();

// so is this:
Foo.doSomething();

Inside the method doSomething(), the variable this refers to the specific instance of Foo that was used to invoke the method (in this example, the current object referenced by aFoo).