How to get the parent base class object super.getClass()

Question

I have a little problem with Java (being a C++ programmer).

I have 2 related classes:

public class Patient() {
...
}

public class PatientPersistent extends Patient {
...
    public void foo() {
    System.out.println(super.getClass().toString());
    }
}

This will output:

class org.example.smartgwt.server.model.PatientPersistent

Is there a way to get the parent class type? i.e.

class org.example.smartgwt.server.model.Patient.

This will allow me to generalize some methods which I need to implement in each child which is awful.

Thanks!

---

UPDATE

I'm using Dozer to convert my domain Hibernate object to a Serializable version. I don't want the client to know of this, so the client only sees the Patient class. On the server side I perform conversions.

public class DataObject<Type> {

    private static final Class<Object> DstType = Type;

    public Object convert(Object srcData, final BeanFactory factory) {
        Mapper mapper = (Mapper)factory.getBean("dozerMapper");

        return (Object)mapper.map(srcData, DstType);
    }
}

public class Patient() implements Serializable {
    public Set foo;
}    

public class PatientPersistent extends Patient {

    public org.hibernate.collection.PersistentSet foo;
    DataObject<Patient> converter = new DataObject<Patient>;

    public Patient convertToSerializable(final BeanFactory factory) {
        return (Patient)converter.convert(this, factory);
    }
}

public class main() {
    // This object is not serializable so I cannot send it to the client
    PatientPersistent serializableBar = new PatientPersistent();

    // Using Dozer to copy the data PatientPersistent -> Patient
    // This will load the Dozer spring bean and copy as mapped
    Patient copiedSerializableData = serializableBar.convertToPersistent(bar, factory);
}

I know this code does not work, but it's just to make my point. I would like to be able to convert the object to it's serializable form so that I can send it back to the client. That's why I would like to give the parent's type. Calling the mapper will always be the same thing, a source object and a Dest.class.

Maybe I'm just too confused with java.

Thanks

Answer 1

getClass().getSuperclass()

But don't use this. It is certainly a sign of bad design.