When should you use the “this” keyword in C++? [duplicate]

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While this is a totally subjective question, I think the general C++ community prefers not to have this->. Its cluttering, and entirely not needed.

Some people use it to differentiate between member variables and parameters. A much more common practice is to just prefix your member variables with something, like a single underscore or an m, or m_, etc.

That is much easier to read, in my opinion. If you need this-> to differentiate between variables, you’re doing it wrong. Either change the parameter name (from x to newX) or have a member variable naming convention.

Consistency is preferred, so instead of forcing this-> on yourself for the few cases you need to differentiate (note in initializer lists this is completely well-defined: x(x), where the member x is initialized by the parameter x), just get better variable names.

This leaves the only time I use this: when I actually need the address of the instance, for whatever reason.

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