What is the best way to check the type of a Scala variable?

Question

Is there a simple way to determine if a variable is a list, dictionary, or something else? Basically I am getting an object back that may be either type and I need to be able to tell the difference.

In Python, we have "Type()", "Typeof()" that

scala> val c: String = "Hello world"

Is there any way to determine : Typeof(c) to print : String

Don't do this! Let the compiler worry about types for you! Life can be so much better! — Travis Brown, Mar 09 '14 at 00:08
Best part of the nice long linked answer is the last line: `It would be better, however, to be more specific about what you want to accomplish, so that the answer can be more to the point.` — som-snytt, Mar 09 '14 at 06:00
@TravisBrown I think this is useful mainly for debugging. Once I was playing with an implicit function converting a String to Int, and I ended up with a Java null-pointer exception for an Int. Turned out the input for my implicit was a `null: String`, which I forgot to convert to 0. In such cases it's useful to be able to print the type of you `null`. :-) — SzG, Jul 01 '17 at 09:30

score 18 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 09 '14 at 01:04

18

I believe you can just use:

c.getClass

edited Mar 09 '14 at 01:04

The Guy with The Hat

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answered Mar 09 '14 at 00:32

user3396298

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What is the best way to check the type of a Scala variable?

1 Answers1