Usage of eclipse warning "field declaration hides another field or variable"?

Question

Eclipse has a java compiler setting called "field declaration hides another field or variable" that can be set to warning/error.

How important is this warning in your opinion?

What is a good standard way to handle this problem?

Code example of where this happens:

public class Test {
   private String caption = null;

   public Test(String caption) { // here
     this.caption = caption;
   }
}

I've seen solutions where the field is renamed, i.e "fCaption", but that would cause the automatic getters/setters that can be genereated to have odd names (getfCaption()). Not unreadable, but ugly...

Edit: Oh yea, there is the possibility to rename the method signature Test(String caption_) or something similar, but that would end up in the javadoc looking weird.

Shem

Mine doesn't complain at all.... – Luciferase

Answer 1

This is a very useful option in my opinion and should be enabled to show a compiler warning. There is an option (in my version at least Eclipse 3.5.2, Java EE feature 1.2.2) to further enable/disable it within constructors and getters/setters to prevent false positives.

Charnel

Agreed, name shadowing can cause subtle errors, especially if you aren't using the this keyword to prefix any class variables. However, it does seem silly for constructors and setters/getters – Pavonine

However: Not doing name shadowing can cause subtle errors too. Just the other way round, like having a method access a field rather than its parameter, if people apply conventions that a parameters have a _p suffix, but then forget this in their implementation. – Contrarious

Answer 2

I'd say that you just disable this warning - it seems no use in your convention. And no wonder it is ignored by default.

Homeopathist

Its a setting that is disabled by default in eclipse. In preferences, Java - compiler - errors/warnings, under "name shadowing and conflicts" – Shem

Answer 3

I keep these set to "Error". If a class and its parent both have a field of the same name I don't want to lose any of my time trying to figure out why I seem to be assigning a value to the field yet it never seems to change!

Stubbed