Question

what are the differences/similarity between the keyword "this" in java and the keyword "self" in python and why or when should we use these two keywords? if you could provide a code example side by side that would be great!

thank you!

Answer 1

Thanks for A2A.

Similarities between self in python and this in java:

• can be used to refer current class instance variable.
• can be used to invoke current class method (implicitly)
• can be used to invoke current class constructor.
• can be passed as an argument in the method call.
• can be passed as argument in the constructor call.
• can be used to return the current class instance from the method.
• can be used to remove name conflicts between instance variables and parameters.

Differences between self in python and this in java:

• Technically both self and this are used for the same thing. They are used to access the variable associated with the current instance. Only difference is, you have to include self explicitly as first parameter to an instance method in Python, whereas this is not the case with Java.
• self is not a keyword in Python. self is a parameter in function and the user can use a different parameter name in place of it. Although it is advisable to use self because it increases the readability of code.
  Sometimes a method will need to refer to the object that invoked it. To allow this, Java defines the this keyword. this can be used inside any method to refer to the current object. That is, this is always a reference to the object on which the method was invoked.

If you have any doubts please comment.

Thank you.