In this context, using the this pointer isn’t entirely necessary, but it will make your code clearer to the reader, by indicating that a given function or variable is a member of the class. An example in this situation:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using std::cout;
using std::endl;

class Class
{
  public:
    Class();
    ~Class();
    int getPrivateNumber () const;
  private:
    int private_number = 42;
};

Class::Class(){}
Class::~Class(){}

int Class::getPrivateNumber() const
{
    return this->private_number;
}

int main()
{
    Class class_example;
    cout << class_example.getPrivateNumber() << endl;
}

See it in action here.