In C# does the "is" keyword always have to be followed by a class?

Question

In Actionscript you can have a variable hold a reference to a class type and then compare an instance of a class to the variable with is. Example:

var a:Foo = new Foo();
var type:Class = Foo;

if(a is type){  //this is true
  //do something
}

Can you do something similar in C#? Or does the "is" keyword always have to be followed by a class?

Answer 1

It could also be followed by an interface name.

Answer 2

see also the Type.IsInstanceOfType method in the .NET framework, if you want to test against a variable type

Answer 3

Data types are objects so both the following are valid in C#

if (value is String) ...

if (value is ExampleClass) ...

Answer 4

.NET 2010 beta 2 : tested against FrameWork 4, 3.5 ("full" FrameWork versions, not "Client Profile" versions)

Given :

public class Foo
{
    public Foo() {}
}

And run-time execution of :

Foo myFoo = new Foo();

Console.WriteLine(myFoo is Foo);

Console.WriteLine(typeof(Foo).IsInstanceOfType(myFoo));

The Console.WriteLine statements both print "True" to the Console Window.

Why do you think this prints 'False to the Console Window :

Console.WriteLine(myFoo.GetType().IsInstanceOfType(typeof(Foo)));