Difference between super() and this() in java Program


Along with various other keywords Java also provides this and super as special keywords which primarily used to represent current instance of a class and it's super class respectively. With this similarity both these keywords have significant differences between them which are listed as below - 

Sr. No.Keythissuper
1Represent and Referencethis keyword mainly represents the current instance of a class.On other hand super keyword represents the current instance of a parent class.
2Interaction with class constructorthis keyword used to call default constructor of the same class.super keyword used to call default constructor of the parent class.
3Method accessibilitythis keyword used to access methods of the current class as it has reference of current class.One can access the method of parent class with the help of super keyword.
4Static contextthis keyword can be referred from static context i.e can be invoked from static instance. For instance we can write System.out.println(this.x) which will print value of x without any compilation or runtime error.On other hand super keyword can't be referred from static context i.e can't be invoked from static instance. For instance we cannot write System.out.println(super.x) this will leads to compile time error.

Example of this vs. super

Equals.jsp

class A {
   public int x, y;
   public A(int x, int y) {
      this.x = x;
      this.y = y;
   }
}
class B extends A {
   public int x, y;
   public B() {
      this(0, 0);
   }
   public B(int x, int y) {
      super(x + 1, y + 1);// calls parent class constructor
      this.x = x;
      this.y = y;
   }
   public void print() {
      System.out.println("Base class : {" + x + ", " + y + "}");
      System.out.println("Super class : {" + super.x + ", " + super.y + "}");
   }
}
class Point {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      B obj = new B();
      obj.print();
      obj = new B(1, 2);
      obj.print();
   }
}

Output

Base class : {0, 0}
Super class : {1, 1}

Base class : {1, 2}
Super class : {2, 3}

Updated on: 25-Feb-2020

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