• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 10:14
CEST 16:14
KST 23:14
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2914Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week0SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-66SC4ALL II announced - $10,000 prize pool, Dec 5-63PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August)11Neeb returns to progaming; rejoins ONSYDE15
StarCraft 2
General
August World Ranking: Clem climbs to #2 Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Daily SC2 Player Grid - feedback wanted Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week Life's Huge Gambling Spree After IEM Katowice 2014
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event INu's Battles #19 2-Days Event SC4ALL II announced - $10,000 prize pool, Dec 5-6
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance
Brood War
General
Making an Online Broodwar Manager Game BW General Discussion ASL22 General Discussion [Personal Project Share] Terran Defense v0.60 ASL 22 Proposed Map Pool
Tourneys
2v2v2v2 Tournament [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-6 Escore Tournament - Season 3
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live! Beyond All Reason Path of Exile
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
INnoVation Fan Club The Scarlett Fan Club The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 McBoner: A hockey love story
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
Northern Ireland Global Starcraft The Automated Ban List
Blogs
valeq
valeq
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
What is a Gamer?
TrAiDoS
Hello guys!
LIN1s
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3799 users

The Big Programming Thread - Page 766

Forum Index > General Forum
Post a Reply
Prev 1 764 765 766 767 768 1032 Next
Thread Rules
1. This is not a "do my homework for me" thread. If you have specific questions, ask, but don't post an assignment or homework problem and expect an exact solution.
2. No recruiting for your cockamamie projects (you won't replace facebook with 3 dudes you found on the internet and $20)
3. If you can't articulate why a language is bad, don't start slinging shit about it. Just remember that nothing is worse than making CSS IE6 compatible.
4. Use [code] tags to format code blocks.
solidbebe
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Netherlands4921 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-23 17:25:19
September 23 2016 17:23 GMT
#15301
Thats a constructor which creates an instance of 'class' and initializes 'variable' with whatever value it was passed in the constructor call.

rereading im not sure what your qeustion is, but if you're wondering, that will compile and work correctly. In fact, its a common style.
That's the 2nd time in a week I've seen someone sig a quote from this GD and I have never witnessed a sig quote happen in my TL history ever before. -Najda
Blitzkrieg0
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States13132 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-23 17:53:26
September 23 2016 17:25 GMT
#15302
On September 24 2016 02:21 travis wrote:
What happens if my class has a variable:

class {

int variable;

//and then the constructor takes a parameter with the same variable name and does this:

class(int variable){

this.variable = variable;


It sets the field in the class to value of the parameter passed to the method. You're calling this.variable to specify that you want the variable in a different scope than the method. The variable without this declaration is assumed to be in the method scope.

** I'll try to go a bit deeper and explain this better:

public class Box {

private int id;
private String name;

private static int boxId;

static {
boxId = 0;
}

public Box(String name) {
id = Box.getBoxId();
this.name = name;
}

public static int getBoxId() {
int ret = Box.boxId;
boxId++;
return ret;
}

public void setId(int id) {
this.id = id;
}
}


So given the previous bit of code, I have a class with a couple fields. In the constructor for my box object, I have a variable called id. There is not an id variable in the scope of the constructor so its assumed that I am referencing the id field of the object. In the setId method you'll notice that I have a parameter called id so I call this.id to specify to the compiler that I want the id variable in this objects scope instead of the method.
I'll always be your shadow and veil your eyes from states of ain soph aur.
Deleted User 3420
Profile Blog Joined May 2003
24492 Posts
September 23 2016 17:34 GMT
#15303
I guess my question was kind of like

when I do this.variable = variable;

how does it know that I am talking about the parameter that was passed, or if I was talking about the uninitialized variable.

I guess the answer is, "it just does" ?

(so mainly I was making sure this does in fact work)
Acrofales
Profile Joined August 2010
Spain18401 Posts
September 23 2016 17:41 GMT
#15304
On September 24 2016 02:34 travis wrote:
I guess my question was kind of like

when I do this.variable = variable;

how does it know that I am talking about the parameter that was passed, or if I was talking about the uninitialized variable.

I guess the answer is, "it just does" ?

(so mainly I was making sure this does in fact work)

It's not "it just does". It's about scope, as the answer explained. If you don't understand scopes, it's something you have to read up on. It's a very important part of almost all programming languages.
Deleted User 3420
Profile Blog Joined May 2003
24492 Posts
September 23 2016 17:48 GMT
#15305
ok, I didn't answer the question in a way that really gets to the root of what I am wondering about, since I used the this keyword


I understand scope. I don't think my question is about scope

if this was my program

public class myclass {

int number = 7;
int number2;

myclass(int number){

this.number2 = number;

}


then what happens
Blitzkrieg0
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States13132 Posts
September 23 2016 17:52 GMT
#15306
I edited my previous post with a better explanation of scope if that helps.
I'll always be your shadow and veil your eyes from states of ain soph aur.
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-23 17:57:37
September 23 2016 17:54 GMT
#15307
On September 24 2016 02:34 travis wrote:
I guess my question was kind of like

when I do this.variable = variable;

how does it know that I am talking about the parameter that was passed, or if I was talking about the uninitialized variable.

I guess the answer is, "it just does" ?

(so mainly I was making sure this does in fact work)

The field "variable" is in object scope, the constructor parameter "variable" is in method scope. Relative to each other, the field is in the outer scope and the parameter is in the inner scope (think Matryoshka doll). Variables with the same name in an inner scope "hide" or "shadow" variables in outer scopes. So whenever you write just "variable", you will use the one closest to your current scope. That's the parameter if you're inside the constructor. If you write "this.variable", it will always look for a variable at object scope. This allows you to access the otherwise hidden field.

Remember that part recently where we couldn't find the reason for the null reference exception and then it turned out you just had to delete the type declaration "ArrayList<FoundTerm>"? That was exactly because with the type in front of the variable name you were declaring a new variable that hid one with the same name at object scope that you actually wanted to use instead.

I'm not a big fan of using hiding like that in constructors because it can introduce hard to spot errors. In some languages it is common practice to prefix variables at object scope, for example with an "m" (often in C++) or an underscore (C#). That way you can still use the plain name for stuff at the method scope, most commonly in the constructor.

EDIT: I wrote "class scope" before when I think it should actually be "object scope". Class scope should be static stuff only, while object scope is variables that are unique to each instance of a class.
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
Acrofales
Profile Joined August 2010
Spain18401 Posts
September 23 2016 18:01 GMT
#15308
On September 24 2016 02:48 travis wrote:
ok, I didn't answer the question in a way that really gets to the root of what I am wondering about, since I used the this keyword


I understand scope. I don't think my question is about scope

if this was my program

public class myclass {

int number = 7;
int number2;

myclass(int number){

this.number2 = number;

}


then what happens


You get scolded for using horrid syntax, and told to use proper builder patterns instead. But it's about the order of variable assignment. It works as you'd expect. Upon calling the constructor, the first act is to call the super constructor. If you don't do this explicitly, it is done implicitly. This creates the object you are constructing, and initializes your global variables. After that it runs your constructor, and changes the value of variable "number2" to the parameter you passed.
Deleted User 3420
Profile Blog Joined May 2003
24492 Posts
September 23 2016 18:03 GMT
#15309
Okay thanks all, so I guess it is a scope issue

and that the lesson is that when variables have the same name, the more local variable takes precedence?
Manit0u
Profile Blog Joined August 2004
Poland17820 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-23 19:52:27
September 23 2016 19:51 GMT
#15310
On September 24 2016 03:03 travis wrote:
Okay thanks all, so I guess it is a scope issue

and that the lesson is that when variables have the same name, the more local variable takes precedence?


A common mistake I see people make (example is from PHP):


$i = 7;

foreach ($somevar as $i) {
// do stuff
// $i declared before loop is overriden with each iteration
}

// $i is now whatever the last element of the iterable $somevar was


Also, I don't think you should be declaring classes within classes...
Time is precious. Waste it wisely.
Blisse
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Canada3710 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-23 19:59:37
September 23 2016 19:59 GMT
#15311
On September 24 2016 03:03 travis wrote:
Okay thanks all, so I guess it is a scope issue

and that the lesson is that when variables have the same name, the more local variable takes precedence?


I would say it depends on the language? I wouldn't say "more local" though, I think "closest in scope" is clearer, but maybe "more local" is easier to understand.

See if these make sense to you.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2804880/in-c-what-is-the-scope-resolution-order-of-precedence-for-shadowed-variab

Behind the scenes, a compiler (preprocessor? one of those steps) (usually?) mangles the name of (all?) variables so it doesn't actually see your variable name. They then use the language rules to deduce which ones to call.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22067562/how-c-handles-the-same-variable-name-along-different-scopes
There is no one like you in the universe.
Acrofales
Profile Joined August 2010
Spain18401 Posts
September 23 2016 22:23 GMT
#15312
On September 24 2016 04:51 Manit0u wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2016 03:03 travis wrote:
Okay thanks all, so I guess it is a scope issue

and that the lesson is that when variables have the same name, the more local variable takes precedence?


A common mistake I see people make (example is from PHP):


$i = 7;

foreach ($somevar as $i) {
// do stuff
// $i declared before loop is overriden with each iteration
}

// $i is now whatever the last element of the iterable $somevar was


Also, I don't think you should be declaring classes within classes...

Not necessarily wrong to declare nested classes. I agree that it's fairly advanced, though, and as a beginner you are better off not doing that.
RoomOfMush
Profile Joined March 2015
1296 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-23 23:09:09
September 23 2016 23:07 GMT
#15313
On September 24 2016 02:54 spinesheath wrote:
I'm not a big fan of using hiding like that in constructors because it can introduce hard to spot errors. In some languages it is common practice to prefix variables at object scope, for example with an "m" (often in C++) or an underscore (C#). That way you can still use the plain name for stuff at the method scope, most commonly in the constructor.

Although I am not a big fan of naming parameters the same as fields either, it must be noted that todays IDE's are more than capable of detecting these kinds of bugs and generating a warning. I know for a fact that Eclipse will warn you if you assign a parameter to itself.
Birdie
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
New Zealand4438 Posts
September 23 2016 23:08 GMT
#15314
On September 24 2016 08:07 RoomOfMush wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2016 02:54 spinesheath wrote:
I'm not a big fan of using hiding like that in constructors because it can introduce hard to spot errors. In some languages it is common practice to prefix variables at object scope, for example with an "m" (often in C++) or an underscore (C#). That way you can still use the plain name for stuff at the method scope, most commonly in the constructor.

Although I am not a big fan of naming parameters equal to fields either, it must be noted that todays IDE's are more than capable of detecting these kinds of bugs and generating a warning. I know for a fact that Eclipse will warn you if you assign a parameter to itself.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the issue is more the readability of the code, not the compilability. If it's not immediately clear which of two variables is being referenced, then time is wasted on the main work of coding (which is reading).
Red classic | A butterfly dreamed he was Zhuangzi | 4.5k, heading to 5k as support!
RoomOfMush
Profile Joined March 2015
1296 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-23 23:11:51
September 23 2016 23:10 GMT
#15315
On September 24 2016 08:08 Birdie wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2016 08:07 RoomOfMush wrote:
On September 24 2016 02:54 spinesheath wrote:
I'm not a big fan of using hiding like that in constructors because it can introduce hard to spot errors. In some languages it is common practice to prefix variables at object scope, for example with an "m" (often in C++) or an underscore (C#). That way you can still use the plain name for stuff at the method scope, most commonly in the constructor.

Although I am not a big fan of naming parameters equal to fields either, it must be noted that todays IDE's are more than capable of detecting these kinds of bugs and generating a warning. I know for a fact that Eclipse will warn you if you assign a parameter to itself.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the issue is more the readability of the code, not the compilability. If it's not immediately clear which of two variables is being referenced, then time is wasted on the main work of coding (which is reading).

Thats a matter of personal taste, but spinesheath was explicitly talking about "hard to spot errors" and I assume he ment missing the "this" operator and assigning a parameter to itself.

But todays IDE's also have something for your particular problem: Syntax highlighting. Just tell your IDE to highlight fields in a different color to parameters and it will become quite obvious which one is being used.
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
September 24 2016 08:03 GMT
#15316
You can just as well read from or write to a variable in inner scope thinking you're working with a field. That doesn't have to involve any self assignment. Obviously IDEs can show a warning for that too, but if you use shadowing in your constructors regularly, then all your constructors will be littered with these warnings. So I suppose that most people who do that have the warning disabled.

Syntax highlighting is not part of your codebase. So if you ever work with others, you better not rely on that.
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
Acrofales
Profile Joined August 2010
Spain18401 Posts
September 24 2016 08:38 GMT
#15317
On September 24 2016 17:03 spinesheath wrote:
You can just as well read from or write to a variable in inner scope thinking you're working with a field. That doesn't have to involve any self assignment. Obviously IDEs can show a warning for that too, but if you use shadowing in your constructors regularly, then all your constructors will be littered with these warnings. So I suppose that most people who do that have the warning disabled.

Syntax highlighting is not part of your codebase. So if you ever work with others, you better not rely on that.

Huh? That's not when it shows a warning.


int fizz, bar;

public void foo(int bar) {
this.bar = bar; //fine, no warning
bar = bar; //warning (assigning bar to itself)
this.fizz = fizz; //warning (fizz is only in the outer scope, thus self assignment again.)
}
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
September 24 2016 09:03 GMT
#15318

int fizz, bar;

public void foo(int bar) { // this is where it could show a warning that bar is shadowing this.bar

int fizz; // this is where it could show a warning that fizz is shadowing this.fizz

// ... enough code to make you forget the line above ...

fizz = 5; // here you could mean to assign to this.fizz, introducing a bug

// and if we have some slightly more complex code with say loops, you might not even get a
// "value assigned to variable is never used" warning
}

If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
Acrofales
Profile Joined August 2010
Spain18401 Posts
September 24 2016 09:22 GMT
#15319
On September 24 2016 18:03 spinesheath wrote:

int fizz, bar;

public void foo(int bar) { // this is where it could show a warning that bar is shadowing this.bar

int fizz; // this is where it could show a warning that fizz is shadowing this.fizz

// ... enough code to make you forget the line above ...

fizz = 5; // here you could mean to assign to this.fizz, introducing a bug

// and if we have some slightly more complex code with say loops, you might not even get a
// "value assigned to variable is never used" warning
}


Yeah, ok. That's pretty bad. Anybody using shadowing like that is asking for it, though

I mean, I'm not a fan of shadowing in general and never use it, except in the constructor to initialize fields. And that goes at the bottom of the constructor, so any operations you do before just setting the field aren't affected b the potential bugs you describe.
Prillan
Profile Joined August 2011
Sweden350 Posts
September 24 2016 10:55 GMT
#15320
On September 24 2016 18:03 spinesheath wrote:

int fizz, bar;

public void foo(int bar) { // this is where it could show a warning that bar is shadowing this.bar

int fizz; // this is where it could show a warning that fizz is shadowing this.fizz

// ... enough code to make you forget the line above ...

fizz = 5; // here you could mean to assign to this.fizz, introducing a bug

// and if we have some slightly more complex code with say loops, you might not even get a
// "value assigned to variable is never used" warning
}


One reason why I like the explicit self in python.


def method(self, bar):
... code here ...
TheBB's sidekick, aligulac.com | "Reality is frequently inaccurate." - Douglas Adams
Prev 1 764 765 766 767 768 1032 Next
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
INu's Battles
11:00
#19 - Day 1
Clem vs NightMareLIVE!
IntoTheiNu 1517
WardiTV1279
LiquipediaDiscussion
Sparkling Tuna Cup
10:00
Weekly #140
ByuN vs IbaLIVE!
CranKy Ducklings91
CranKy Ducklings SOOP9
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 37903
Calm 9701
Bisu 2558
EffOrt 877
Jaedong 823
Shuttle 760
BeSt 553
Mini 514
Larva 300
Stork 289
[ Show more ]
ZerO 261
Leta 160
Zeus 122
hero 99
Hyun 86
Sharp 75
Mong 74
Pusan 65
sorry 56
ToSsGirL 46
Hm[arnc] 38
Terrorterran 27
Barracks 26
Shine 22
soO 21
Sexy 19
zelot 17
Rock 16
IntoTheRainbow 11
Dota 2
Gorgc16345
Dendi1009
syndereN309
BananaSlamJamma211
Counter-Strike
byalli737
edward336
Other Games
singsing2116
B2W.Neo1019
hiko760
Lowko523
Mlord199
Liquid`VortiX183
Pyrionflax177
ZerO(Twitch)18
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV73
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 31
lovetv 20
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 5
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV466
League of Legends
• Nemesis1703
Upcoming Events
PiGosaur Cup
9h 46m
Replay Cast
18h 46m
Kung Fu Cup
20h 46m
Replay Cast
1d 9h
The PondCast
1d 19h
INu's Battles
1d 20h
Percival vs Cure
Replay Cast
2 days
Escore
2 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
herO vs SHIN
Clem vs Solar
Serral vs Rogue
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
4 days
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
PiG Sty Festival
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-08-03
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
RSL Revival: Season 6
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5
Escore Tournament S3: W6
Escore Tournament S3: W7
CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
Escore Tournament S3: W8
Acropolis #5 - TRS
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Thunderpick World Champ.
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.