In this post, I will list out possible uses of these two operators. Before that let me give brief details
- These are keywords having special semantic/meaning in language.
- Most uses are accessing the members or invoking the constructor.
- Uses of are valid within- Constructor, Instance initializer block, Instance initializer expression. Use in constructs than these are invalid and compiler will throw error accordingly.
Uses of this
It is operator which represents the value which is reference to object to which instance method is invoked (in case of method or block scope) or object in the construction (constructor scope)
In simple words, when using this operator you have access to invoking object, to which you can access any instance member on that.
Access the members
You may modify access to members using this operator to explicitly saying that accessing the member of that class. Without modifying it will access only member which belongs to same class
Basic syntax is this.<member>
Following snippet shows usage
| public class Shape { | |
| int length; | |
| int width; | |
| public void setLength(int length) { | |
| // access the instance variable | |
| this.length = length; | |
| } | |
| public void setWidth(int width) { | |
| // access the instance variable | |
| this.width = width; | |
| } | |
| public void buildRectangle() { | |
| // access the instance member method | |
| this.setLength(5); | |
| this.setWidth(4); | |
| } | |
| } |
Following program shows the this reference value and Shape reference variable, to which method is invoked, are same
| public class Shape { | |
| private void printThis() { | |
| // prints invoking object | |
| System.out.println(this); | |
| } | |
| public static void main(String[] args) { | |
| Shape shape = new Shape(); | |
| // print the shape reference | |
| System.out.println(shape); | |
| // print the shape reference inside method | |
| shape.printThis(); | |
| } | |
| } | |
| // after execution this will print | |
| // Shape@19821f | |
| // Shape@19821f | |
| // meaning that both are similar object |
Above code makes clears that this is the reference to invoking object
Access member variable in case parameter name is same as field name
There may be the case that you are having same name to parameter as that of field (mostly in constructor parameter) for readability purpose. Lets look at following code snippet
| public class Shape { | |
| int length; | |
| int width; | |
| private Shape(int length, int width) { | |
| length = length; | |
| width = width; | |
| } | |
| } |
This will not result into assignment to field because instance field is hidden by local variable as it is in local block scope.
To override the local variable scope, we should make use this operator as shown following code
| public class Shape { | |
| int length; | |
| int width; | |
| private Shape(int length, int width) { | |
| // access member variable incase the | |
| // field name and parameter name are same | |
| this.length = length; | |
| this.width = width; | |
| } | |
| } |
Invoke the another constructor
It may be case that you want to create new constructor which is doing same as that of another constructor but with something different and you don’t want to duplicate code the constructor code
We can have this , using syntax : this ( <param> )
Following code shows usage
| public class Shape { | |
| private int length; | |
| private int width; | |
| private Shape(int length, int width) { | |
| // this constructs rectangle | |
| this.length = length; | |
| this.width = width; | |
| } | |
| private Shape(int length) { | |
| // Constructs the square | |
| // by invoking the another constructor | |
| this(length, length); | |
| } | |
| } |
Remember, the invocation must be very first statement in the constructor. If it is not then such attempt is invalid.
Use of super
This operator comes into use when class has inheritance and want to access the member of the super class in subclass which are accessible.
Access the hidden member variable
When in a sub class, you are having the variable with same name as that of in super class then super class variable is hidden in the subclass. Therefore, the any access to that variable in subclass will result in to one in the subclass.
So, to access the hidden variable from super class we have to use super as shown in following code snippet.
| public class SuperClass { | |
| int i = 1; | |
| } |
| public class SubClasss extends SuperClass { | |
| int i = 2; | |
| public void display() { | |
| System.out.println(i); // result 2 | |
| System.out.println(super.i); // result 1 | |
| } | |
| } |
Access the overridden method from super class
This same as accessing the variable as above
lets look at following code snippet
| public class SuperClass { | |
| public void display() { | |
| System.out.println("Super"); | |
| } | |
| } |
| public class SubClasss extends SuperClass { | |
| public void display() { | |
| System.out.println("Sub"); | |
| } | |
| private void access() { | |
| display(); // invokes one in SubClass | |
| super.display(); // invokes one in SuperClass | |
| } | |
| } |
Invoking the super class constructor
Like invoking another constructor of same class as in this(), you can invoke super class constructor. Using syntax , super(<param>)
Lets look at following code snippet
| public class SuperClass { | |
| public SuperClass() { | |
| System.out.println("SuperClass Constr with no params"); | |
| } | |
| public SuperClass(int a, int b) { | |
| System.out.println("SuperClass Constr with two params"); | |
| } | |
| } |
| public class SubClasss extends SuperClass { | |
| public SubClasss() { | |
| super(5, 4); | |
| System.out.println("SubClasss Constr with no params"); | |
| } | |
| public SubClasss(int a) { | |
| System.out.println("SubClasss Constr with one params"); | |
| } | |
| public static void main(String[] args) { | |
| new SubClasss(); | |
| System.out.println(); | |
| new SubClasss(5); | |
| } | |
| } | |
| Result of execution | |
| SuperClass Constr with two params | |
| SubClasss Constr with no params | |
| SuperClass Constr with no params | |
| SubClasss Constr with one params |
When you write any constructor, having statements except for this(), then compiler always puts the call to super class default constructor which is super().
Once last point, When using super or this for constructor invocation one of them must be used.
ajduke's blog 
awesome tutorial of this and super.. thanks for sharing.. 🙂
wanted to share a trick:
If you want some code to be executed before the call to this and super, you can include the same as part of the argument to this() and super(). See more at:
this and super keywords
thankyou very much.i got many thing…so thnks