freeCodeCamp/guide/english/java/instanceof-operator/index.md

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instanceof Operator

instanceof operator

The instanceof operator allows you to check the validity of a IS A relationship. If at any point of time, we are not sure about this and we want to validate this at runtime, we can do the following:

//assuming vehicle is an instance of Class `Car` the expression inside the 'if' will  return true
if(vehicle instanceof Car){
    //do something if vehicle is a Car
}

Note: If you apply the instanceof operator with any variable that has null value, it returns false.