Enforce "this" access

Question

Due to some weird requirements (post processing of source code) I need to use "this." syntax instead of just the member variable name. Is there a way I can enforce static checks at compile time to ensure that I am using "this." instead of the shorter equivalent?

Answer 1

In Eclipse you could go into Java / Compiler / Errors and warnings / Code Style and change "unqualified access to instance field" to Error instead of the default Ignore.

EDIT: Using a mixture of this change to the IDE (if you're using Eclipse, of course) and checkstyle as part of your build rules should suffice.

Answer 2

Have you ever used checkstyle? You can define your code style rule in xml and run it at compile time. There is also a maven plugin if you care.

Answer 3

Eclipse offers the ability to configure the Clean Up tool to do this for you.

Answer 4

IntelliJ has a code style check for Instance field access not qualified with 'this'

It also has the option correct this for a field, class or modules. This sort of thing could safe you having to touch many files yourself.