How to check type of variable in Java?

Just use:

.getClass().getSimpleName();

Example:

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

Output:

StringBuilder

Basically , For example :

public class Kerem
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        short x = 10;
        short y = 3;
        Object o = y;
        System.out.println(o.getClass()); // java.lang.Short
    }

}

I wasn't happy with any of these answers, and the one that's right has no explanation and negative votes so I searched around, found some stuff and edited it so that it is easy to understand. Have a play with it, not as straight forward as one would hope.

//move your variable into an Object type
Object obj=whatYouAreChecking;
System.out.println(obj);

// moving the class type into a Class variable
Class cls=obj.getClass();
System.out.println(cls);

// convert that Class Variable to a neat String
String answer = cls.getSimpleName();
System.out.println(answer);

Here is a method:

public static void checkClass (Object obj) {
    Class cls = obj.getClass();
    System.out.println("The type of the object is: " + cls.getSimpleName());       
}

None of these answers work if the variable is an uninitialized generic type

And from what I can find, it's only possible using an extremely ugly workaround, or by passing in an initialized parameter to your function, making it in-place, see here:

<T> T MyMethod(...){ if(T.class == MyClass.class){...}}

Is NOT valid because you cannot pull the type out of the T parameter directly, since it is erased at runtime time.

<T> void MyMethod(T out, ...){ if(out.getClass() == MyClass.class){...}}

This works because the caller is responsible to instantiating the variable out before calling. This will still throw an exception if out is null when called, but compared to the linked solution, this is by far the easiest way to do this

I know this is a kind of specific application, but since this is the first result on google for finding the type of a variable with java (and given that T is a kind of variable), I feel it should be included

var.getClass().getSimpleName()

Let's take a example

String[] anArrayOfStrings = { "Agra", "Mysore", "Chandigarh", "Bhopal" };
List<String> strList = Arrays.asList(anArrayOfStrings); 

anArrayOfStrings.getClass().getSimpleName() //res =>  String[]
strList.getClass().getSimpleName() // res => ArrayList

You can check it easily using Java.lang.Class.getSimpleName() Method Only if variable has non-primitive type. It doesnt work with primitive types int ,long etc.

reference - Here is the Oracle docs link

I hit this question as I was trying to get something similar working using Generics. Taking some of the answers and adding getClass().isArray() I get the following that seems to work.

public class TypeTester <T extends Number>{

<T extends Object> String tester(T ToTest){

    if (ToTest instanceof Integer) return ("Integer");
    else if(ToTest instanceof Double) return ("Double");
    else if(ToTest instanceof Float) return ("Float");
    else if(ToTest instanceof String) return ("String");
    else if(ToTest.getClass().isArray()) return ("Array");
    else return ("Unsure");
}
}

I call it with this where the myArray part was simply to get an Array into callFunction.tester() to test it.

public class Generics {
public static void main(String[] args) {
    int [] myArray = new int [10];

    TypeTester<Integer> callFunction = new TypeTester<Integer>();
    System.out.println(callFunction.tester(myArray));
}
}

You can swap out the myArray in the final line for say 10.2F to test Float etc

public static void chkType(Object var){     
        String type = var.getClass().toString();
        System.out.println(type.substring(16));     
        //assertEquals(type,"class java.lang.Boolean");
        //assertEquals(type,"class java.lang.Character");
        //assertEquals(type,"class java.lang.Integer");
        //assertEquals(type,"class java.lang.Double");      
    }