I think you may have a problem in your testing.

public abstract class ClassTest {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ClassTest t = new foo2();
    System.out.println(t.getClassName());
  }
  String getClassName(){
    return getClass().getName();
  }
}

class foo2 extends ClassTest{
}

prints "foo2".

Patricia

I think it'll work in any method that the child would call inside the
parent.  Just probably not the ctor.  Try any other method define the
method in the abstract class and have the derived class call it but
don't define it in the derived class.  I bet it works.

this.getClass() returns the actual class of the object,  not simply the
class of the current method.  If you're getting "foo" instead of "foo2" for
an object that is of class "foo2" you have some other problem.  Can you show
a short, complete example of code where this happens?

getChildren () ?  Your question doesn't make any sense in the context of
class types.  Do you mean how can you get all the instances of a particular
class or all the subclasses of a particular class?  You'll need to explain
what you want a little more.

Cheers,
Matt Humphrey   matth@ivizNOSPAM.com  http://www.iviz.com/

Have you even tried compiling and running the  example  you have posted?

A few things -

* type of "c" will always be java.lang.Class .
* c.getName() can never return foo (or its fully qualified name). foo is an abstract
class.
* "this" will always refer to an object . If the object is of type foo2,
this.getClass().getName() will return foo2 (FQN really ) . There is no "this" at a class
level in java since class of an object is not really an object (in any interesting/OO
way) in  java. Class of an object will always be an object of type java.lang.Class.
* Children object and parent object ? Are you talking inheritence or some kind of
composition ? If you wan to find out all subclasses of a given class, the simple answer
is -  you can not. You can  however find out super class or super interface(s) using
reflection.