What are the applications of this pointer?

The this pointer is used to refer to the object that is foremost in the current scope. It has three primary purposes. First, a programmer uses this to refer to a member variable that has been shadowed by a function argument. Secondly, it is used to obtain a reference to itself, usually for the purpose of passing itself to another function or class. Finally, the this pointer can be used to call alternate constructors of the same object, usually as a means of reusing code and providing various constructors with default arguments.