title: In Java, why do people prepend fields with `this`?
body: <p>When referencing class variables, why do people prepend it with <code>this</code>? I'm not talking about the case when <code>this</code> is used to disambiguate from method parameters, but rather when it seems unnecessary.</p>
  
  <p>Example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class Person {        
      private String name;
  
      public String toString() {
          return this.name;
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In <code>toString</code>, why not just reference <code>name</code> as <code>name</code>?</p>
  
  <pre><code>return name;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What does <code>this.name</code> buy?</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/404278/java-calendar-time-minute-is-wrong">Here's</a> a stackoverflow question whose code has <code>this</code> pre-pending.</p>