Getting name of the class from an instance

Question

I have the following problem: I get an instance of a class passed and want to know the name of the class of this instance. How to get this?

Answer 1

Just add a category:

NSObject+Extensions.h
- (NSString *)className;

NSObject+Extensions.m
- (NSString *)className {
    return NSStringFromClass(self.class);
}

Then use the following code:

NSString *className = [[SomeObject new] className];

or even:

NSString *className = SomeObject.new.className;

To use it anywhere add the category to YourProject.pch file.

Answer 2

If you are looking how get classname in Swift you can use reflect to get information about object.

let tokens = split(reflect(self).summary, { $0 == "." })
if let typeName = tokens.last {
    println(typeName)
}

Answer 3

if all you want to do is test an object to see if it's a type of a certain Class

BOOL test = [self isKindOfClass:[SomeClass class]];

Answer 4

From within the class itself

-(NSString *) className
{
    return NSStringFromClass([self class]);
}

Answer 5

NSStringFromClass([instance class]) should do the trick.

Answer 6

You can also use [[self class] description]