base class Constructor new object Reflection Type

`GetType`

This is a C# method on object. It provides a Type object. This object indicates the most derived type of the object instance.

Returned value

GetType in .NET accesses the actual type of the object instance. It does not report the base types or the variable type.

Example program

This program uses the GetType method on a base type reference to more derived objects. We instantiate 3 classes—A, B and C—in Main.

Info The class A is used as base class. The class B derives from class A. And the class C derives from class B.

Detail This executes and creates an instance of each class, but stores the references in the A type variables.

Next The GetType method returns the most derived type of the instances, not the type of the variable.

using System;

class A
{
}

class B : A
{
}

class C : B
{
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        A a1 = new A();
        A a2 = new B();
        A a3 = new C();

        Console.WriteLine(a1.GetType());
        Console.WriteLine(a2.GetType());
        Console.WriteLine(a3.GetType());
    }
}A
B
C

A summary

We demonstrated the GetType method when used with derived and base classes. This C# method returns the most-derived class—it does not return base classes.