does Any == Object

Question

The following code in kotlin:

Any().javaClass

Has value of java.lang.Object. Does that mean Any and Object<

Answer 1

Kotlin compiler treats kotlin.Any and java.lang.Object as two different types, but at runtime they are represented with the same java.lang.Object class.

javaClass property returns the runtime class of an instance, so that's why you get the same java.lang.Object class in both cases.

There are also other types which are different at compile time, but the same at runtime; they are listed in the Mapped types section of the documentation.