how to know the type of reference referring to a object in java?

Question

 package example;
    class Machine
    {
        public void start()
       {
            System.out.println("MACHINE IS STARTING");
       }
    }
    class Camera extends Machine
    {
        public void snap()
        {
            System.out.println("SNAP");
        }
    }

    public class App {
        public static void main(String args[])
        {
            Camera cam1 = new Camera();
            Machine mach1 = cam1; 

        }

    }

in the above code camera object is being refereed by both cam1 which is of type Camera and mach1 of type Machine . Is there any function which can tell the type of references that are being referred to that object???

Answer 1

If you want to know the class of the instance referenced by the mach1 variable, use :

mach1.getClass().getName()

If you want to test if mach1 is of a specific type, use instanceof

if (mach1 instanceof Camera)

Answer 2

You can use the getclass method for it

java.lang.Object.getClass()

mach1.getClass().getName()

it will return the runtime class of an object.