Hi

Why dont you work with reflections? You can retrive the class objects
with it, check for the particular type and stuff.

More over reflections are known to have serious performance drawbacks.
There are other options for doing the same work. But reflections api
comes with the java sdk.

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/reflect/class/getClass.html

Well, what you wrote is very close to one of the ways of doing it in
Java, going ahead with the conversion and catching the
ClassCastException if it fails.

However, I would do it with a precheck:

if(objObject instanceof Integer){
  return ((Integer)objObject).intValue();
}else{
  return 0;
}

Patricia

qwert sez:

You're implying that it's possible in some language other than Java.
I'm curious: what language is that?

Dima

I think it's unlikely that you have a valid need for this unless you are
writing an implementation of a different language (one with a different type
system).  I suggest you review your design and see /why/ you need it, and
whether there is a better way of doing things.

If you want to, or have to, stick with this approach then the only way you can
do it, is by defining a special kind of object which contains the data in one
(or more) common forms, and converts as necessary.  E.g.

   class Variant
   {
       private String m_value;

       public void set(String s) { m_value = s; }
       public String get() { return m_value; }
       public void set(int i) { m_value = Integer.toString(i); }
       public int getInt() { return Integer.parseInt(m_value); }
       public void set(double d) { m_value = Double.toString(i); }
       public int getDouble() { return Double.parseDouble(m_value); }
       // etc...
   }

   -- chris