Usage of "this" operator in Java

The this keyword is a reference to the current object.
Another way to think about it is that the this keyword is like a personal pronoun that you use to reference yourself. Other languages have different words for the same concept. VB uses Me and the Python convention (as Python does not use a keyword, simply an implicit parameter to each method) is to use self.

If you were to reference objects that are intrinsically yours you would say something like this:

My arm or my leg

Think of this as just a way for a type to say "my". So a psuedocode representation would look like this:

class Employee
{
    private int age;

    public Employee(int age)
    {
        my.age = age;
    }
}

First lets take a look on code

public class Employee  {

private int empId;
private String name;

public int getEmpId() {
    return this.empId;
}

public String getName() {
    return this.name;
}

public void setEmpId(int empId) {
    this.empId = empId;
}

public void setName(String name) {
    this.name = name;
}

}

In the above method getName() return instance variable name. Now lets take another look of similar code is

public class Employee  {

private int empId;
private String name;

public int getEmpId() {
    return this.empId;
}

public String getName() {

    String name="Yasir Shabbir";
    return name;
}

public void setEmpId(int empId) {
    this.empId = empId;
}

public void setName(String name) {
    this.name = name;
}


public static void main(String []args){
    Employee e=new Employee();
    e.setName("Programmer of UOS");

    System.out.println(e.getName());

}

}

Output Yasir Shabbir

• this operator always work with instance variable(Belong to Object) not any class variable(Belong to Class)
• this always refer to class non static attribute not any other parameter or local variable.
• this always use in non static method
• this operator cannot work on static variable(Class variable)

**NOTE:**It’s often a logic error when a method contains a parameter or local variable that has the same name as a field of the class. In this case, use reference this if you wish to access the field of the class—otherwise, the method parameter or local variable will be referenced.