Test if object is instanceof a parameter type

Question

Is there a way to determine if an object is an instance of a generic type?

public <T> test(Object obj) {     if (obj instanceof T) {         ...     } } 

That clearly doesn't work. Is there an alternative? Like I want to use Java reflection to instantiate a class and then check to make sure it is of type generic T.

Answer 1

The only way you can do this check is if you have the Class object representing the type:

Class<T> type; //maybe passed into the method if ( type.isInstance(obj) ) {    //... } 

Answer 2

To extend the sample of Mark Peters, often you want to do something like:

Class<T> type; //maybe passed to the method if ( type.isInstance(obj) ) {    T t = type.cast(obj);    // ... }