How to check type of variable in Java?

Question

Java is a statically typed language, so the compiler does most of this checking for you. Once you declare a variable to be a certain type, the compiler will ensure that it is only ever assigned values of that type (or values that are sub-types of that type).

The examples you gave (int, array, double) these are all primitives, and there are no sub-types of them. Thus, if you declare a variable to be an int:

int x;

You can be sure it will only ever hold int values.

If you declared a variable to be a List, however, it is possible that the variable will hold sub-types of List. Examples of these include ArrayList, LinkedList, etc.

If you did have a List variable, and you needed to know if it was an ArrayList, you could do the following:

List y;
...
if (y instanceof ArrayList) { 
  ...its and ArrayList...
}

However, if you find yourself thinking you need to do that, you may want to rethink your approach. In most cases, if you follow object-oriented principles, you will not need to do this. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, though.

Actually quite easy to roll your own tester, by abusing Java's method overload ability. Though I'm still curious if there is an official method in the sdk.

Example:

class Typetester {
    void printType(byte x) {
        System.out.println(x + " is an byte");
    }
    void printType(int x) {
        System.out.println(x + " is an int");
    }
    void printType(float x) {
        System.out.println(x + " is an float");
    }
    void printType(double x) {
        System.out.println(x + " is an double");
    }
    void printType(char x) {
        System.out.println(x + " is an char");
    }
}

then:

Typetester t = new Typetester();
t.printType( yourVariable );

a.getClass().getName() - will give you the datatype of the actual object referred to by a, but not the datatype that the variable a was originally declared as or subsequently cast to.

boolean b = a instanceof String - will give you whether or not the actual object referred to by a is an instance of a specific class. Again, the datatype that the variable a was originally declared as or subsequently cast to has no bearing on the result of the instanceof operator.

I took this information from: How do you know a variable type in java?

This can happen. I'm trying to parse a String into an int and I'd like to know if my Integer.parseInt(s.substring(a, b)) is kicking out an int or garbage before I try to sum it up.

By the way, this is known as Reflection. Here's some more information on the subject: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/reflect/

Just use:

.getClass().getSimpleName();

Example:

StringBuilder randSB = new StringBuilder("just a String");
System.out.println(randSB.getClass().getSimpleName());

Output:

StringBuilder

You may work with Integer instead of int, Double instead of double, etc. (such classes exists for all primitive types). Then you may use the operator instanceof, like if(var instanceof Integer){...}

Well, I think checking the type of variable can be done this way.

public <T extends Object> void checkType(T object) {    
    if (object instanceof Integer)
        System.out.println("Integer ");
    else if(object instanceof Double)
        System.out.println("Double ");
    else if(object instanceof Float)
        System.out.println("Float : ");
    else if(object instanceof List)
        System.out.println("List! ");
    else if(object instanceof Set)
        System.out.println("Set! ");
}

This way you need not have multiple overloaded methods. I think it is good practice to use collections over arrays due to the added benefits. Having said that, I do not know how to check for an array type. Maybe someone can improve this solution. Hope this helps!

P.S Yes, I know that this doesn't check for primitives as well.

The first part of your question is meaningless. There is no circumstance in which you don't know the type of a primitive variable at compile time.

Re the second part, the only circumstance that you don't already know whether a variable is an array is if it is an Object. In which case object.getClass().isArray() will tell you.