Android Activity.getParent() always returning null

Question

I have this little function here:

public Activity getRootActivity()
{
    Activity a = this;
    while (a.getParent() != null)
        a = a.getParent();
    return a;
}

But a.getParent() always returns null. It doesn't seem to matter how deep into my UI I go, it will always return null.

Anybody have any idea as to why?

EDIT

Here is how I am starting Activities (within other activities)

startActivity(new Intent(this, activityname.class));

Apparently that means I'm not 'embedding' them? How does one 'embed' them?

Answer 1

Documentation says: public final Activity getParent () Since: API Level 1

Return the parent activity if this view is an embedded child.

Is your Activity an embedded child?

Answer 2

Activity#getParent():

Return the parent activity if this view is an embedded child.

Is the activity an embedded child? If not, getParent() will return null.