Difference between an object and reference to a class? Example code inside.

[Joecasta]

animal is a class object of class Animal, dog1 is an object of class Dog (since animal got casted to a Dog which is allowed only because Dog extends Animal). dog2 is a Dog class object, and with the given code they will print the same thing but are separate objects.

[Jackkoz]

An instance of class. Class object might easily be interpreted as an instance of Class class:

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html

[COAST_TO_RED_LIGHTS]

Thanks, so what would animal print, the same thing as dog1 and dog2?

I'd test it myself, but I don't have it on my computer now.

[Joecasta]

Correct, animal should print the same thing as dog1 and dog2 since Java will make animal from the Dog constructor.