Getting the name of a sub-class from within a super-class

Question

Let\'s say I have a base class named Entity. In that class, I have a static method to retrieve the class name:

class Entity {
    public static         


        

Answer 1

Don't make the method static. The issue is that when you invoke getClass() you are calling the method in the super class - static methods are not inherited. In addition, you are basically name-shadowing Object.getClass(), which is confusing.

If you need to log the classname within the superclass, use

return this.getClass().getName();

This will return "Entity" when you have an Entity instance, "User" when you have a User instance, etc.