Reg.naming variables

[geetha nagarajan]

Is it ok if an instance variable & local variable share the same name in a program?
for ex:

class Var
{
  int b=10;  //instance variable
  public static void main(String s[])
  {
     int b=100;  //local variable
     Var v= new Var();
     System.out.println(v.b);
     System.out.println(b);
  }
}

[ April 12, 2002: Message edited by: Cindy Glass ]

[Dave Vick]

Syntactically and according to the JLS sure it is ok, but anyone that comes behind you might to maintain the code not like it.

[geetha nagarajan]

Thanks for the answer.Ya,what u say is right.It's difficult to maintain.
i just wanted to know if it was syntactically right.

[Cindy Glass]

The trick is - if you have a local variable shadowing a member variable, and you actually want to to something to the member variable, then you need to refer to it as "this.b" to distinquish it from local variable b.

class Var{
     int b=10;     //instance variable (member variable)
    Var(){
          int b=200;  //local variable (non-static method)
          System.out.println("In constructor");
          System.out.println("In constructor b=" + b);
          System.out.println("In constructor this.b=" + this.b);
    }
  public static void main(String s[])  {
       int b=100;  //local variable (static method)
       Var v= new Var();
       System.out.println(v);
       System.out.println(b);
      // System.out.println("In constructor this.b=" + this.b);  //can't ref "this" from a static context
    }
}