Self (computer science)

this, self, and Me are keywords used in some computer programming languages to refer to the object, class, or other entity of which the currently running code is a part. The entity referred to by these keywords thus depends on the execution context (such as which object is having its method called). Different programming languages use these keywords in slightly different ways. In languages where a keyword like "this" is mandatory, the keyword is the only way to access data and methods stored in the current object. Where optional, they can disambiguate variables and functions with the same name.

In many object-oriented programming languages, this (also called self or Me) is a variable that is used in instance methods to refer to the object on which they are working. C++ and languages which derive in style from it (such as Java, C#, D, and PHP) generally use this. Smalltalk and others, such as Object Pascal, Perl, Python, Ruby, Rust, Objective-C, DataFlex and Swift, use self. Microsoft's Visual Basic uses Me.

The concept is similar in all languages: this is usually an immutable reference or pointer which refers to the current object; the current object often being the code that acts as 'parent' to the property, method, sub-routine or function that contains the this keyword. After an object is properly constructed, or instantiated, this is always a valid reference. Some languages require it explicitly; others use lexical scoping to use it implicitly to make symbols within their class visible. Or alternatively, the current object referred to by this may be an independent code object that has called the function or method containing the keyword this. Such a thing happens, for example, when a Javascript event handler attached to an HTML tag in a web page calls a function containing the keyword this stored in the global space outside the document object; in that context, this will refer to the page element within the document object, not the enclosing window object.

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