What is the purpose of the instanceof operator?

The instanceof operator is used to check whether an object is an instance of a specific class or subclass, or if it implements a given interface. It returns true if the object matches the type, which is checkable, otherwise false.

Examples of usage:

// Check if o is an instance of the String class
Object o = "hello";
if (o instanceof String) {
    System.out.println("Object is a String");
}

# Check if obj is an instance of the list class
obj = [1, 2, 3]
if isinstance(obj, list): # In Python, isinstance() is used
    print("Object is a list")