i have a kind of specific problem, let's say, that i have public interface A { } //------------------------------ public class B implements A{ static int countx = 0; } //---------------------------------- public class C implements A{ static int county = 0; } //---------------------------------- public class Arc { public A from; public A to; //======================================== and now I have an object a (which is an instance of Arc) and I want to find out whether it is an instance of B or C and get to the atributes countX or countY (stg like a.from.countX) any ideas? :)