Question

I have this object which is an instance of a superclass. I want to know which subclass that object really is, so that I can decide what to do with it. There is this getClass() method but it’s apparently not used for comparison issues. How can I get the sub-type of my object?

Answer 1

You may have a design flaw if you’re trying to do this but instanceof.

public class MainClass {
  public static void main(String[] a) {

    String s = "Hello";
    if (s instanceof java.lang.String) {
      System.out.println("is a String");
    }
  }

}

See Beware of instanceof operator.