We know that double-colon (::) is used to get function (callable) reference in Kotlin, e.g. String::compareTo, "string"::compareTo.
In Java we use SomeClass.class and someInstance.getClass() to get the class. Why in Kotlin we use SomeClass::class and someInstance::class while class is not a function/method?
println(String::compareTo)
// output: fun kotlin.String.compareTo(kotlin.String): kotlin.Int
println("string".compareTo("strong"))
// output: -6
println(String::class)
// output: class kotlin.String
println("string".class)
// compile error