java get property only exist in child class

Question

class Parent {

}

class Child extends parent {

 String something;
//get and set
}


Parent parent = getChildObject();

//without casing getChildObject() to Child object. i cannot do child.getSomething(); Can i do something like parent.getProperty("something"); to get the value?

Answer 1

The correct way to do this is:

if (parent instanceof Child) {
    String something = ((Child) parent).getSomething();
}

You can also do this by using reflection, but that is a lot more complicated.