Question

Is java.lang.Object superclass of all the custom class/objects inherited implicitly? I thought java didn’t support multiple inheritance. The reason I ask is if I already inherit from another class in my custom class and again java is forcing implicit inheritance of java.lang.Object on top of it, is it not multiple inheritance?

Also, is java.lang.class Class also the superclass for all custom classes/Objects? If not, how in java reflections we can get the type of class for any class passed or call isInstance on any object?

Answer 1

Everything is an Object, that said you could see the structure as this:

Object

Animal

Cat

and not as this:

Object    Animal

      Cat

Where Cat extends both, it’s not like this last example, but it’s Cat that extends Animal which extends Object.