Difference between getApplicationContext() and this in Android

Question

I know this is a basic question but i have seen that using the method getApplicationContext() to get the context work at places where the "this" keyword does't work, especially inside an onClickListener. Why is this?

Possible duplicate of [Difference between getContext() , getApplicationContext() , getBaseContext() and "this"](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10641144/difference-between-getcontext-getapplicationcontext-getbasecontext-and) — Mithun Sarker Shuvro, Jun 05 '16 at 19:06

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 05 '16 at 18:34

1

In the case of an OnClickListener, this is the anonymous class of the OnClickListener, therefore not a Context.

Whereas calling that method works because it's from the Activity class.

Alternatively, MyActivity.this works as well.

answered Jun 05 '16 at 18:34

OneCricketeer

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 05 '16 at 18:41

getActivity(): Used inside a Fragment to get the context of activity it is currently associated to.

this: Returns the context of current block in which it is called. If it is called inside an onClickListener then it would return the context of that listener, not the activity.

MyActivity.this: Returns the context of the activity. This can be used at the place of getActivity() as an alternate. (MyActivity should be read as the activity name you are using).

Difference between getApplicationContext() and this in Android

2 Answers2