Type of object?

Sup /prog/riders?

I have a common problem (I guess).
I have an abstract class "X" and two classes ("A" and "B") that inherit from it. Also I really need a list that can handle both of them.

List<X> mylist;
mylist.add(A);
mylist.add(B);

Now I need to pick out all items of type A and do something with them, possibly using methods only available in class A and NOT in X or B. In ENTERPRISE JAVA there is "instanceof" but using that sounds just as hacky as saving a type in every object.


Is there a CLEAN way of determining if the object from the X-list is of type A?
Not Java-specific, rather OOP in general.

>>9
That's not inefficient at all, it's still just one function-call. The upside is that any loop over the list doesn't have to make a gazillion checks for every class that inherited from X but just calls the function and lets the object decide what to do with it.

Goddamnit /prog/, is here anyone who can actually program?

(in before assembler > *)