[java] Check if an object belongs to a class in Java

The usual way would be:

if (a instanceof A)

However, there are cases when you can't do this, such as when A in a generic argument.

Due to Java's type erasure, the following won't compile:

<A> boolean someMethod(Object a) {
    if (a instanceof A)
    ...
}

and the following won't work (and will produce an unchecked cast warning):

<A> void someMethod(Object a) {
    try {
        A casted = (A)a;    
    } catch (ClassCastException e) {
         ...
    }
}

You can't cast to A at runtime, because at runtime, A is essentially Object.

The solutions to such cases is to use a Class instead of the generic argument:

void someMethod(Object a, Class<A> aClass) {
    if (aClass.isInstance(a)) {
       A casted = aClass.cast(a);
       ...
    }
}

You can then call the method as:

someMethod(myInstance, MyClass.class);
someMethod(myInstance, OtherClass.class);