What is the 'instanceof' operator used for in Java?

Question

What is the instanceof operator used for? I\'ve seen stuff like

if (source instanceof Button) {
    //...
} else {
    //...
}

Answer 1

You could use Map to make higher abstraction on instance of

private final Map> actions = new HashMap<>();

Then having such map add some action to it:

actions.put(String.class, new Consumer() {
        @Override
        public void accept(String s) {
           System.out.println("action for String");       
        }
    };

Then having an Object of not known type you could get specific action from that map:

actions.get(someObject).accept(someObject)