Final answer:
To determine if an object belongs to a class or its subclass, use the isinstance() function in Python. This function returns True if the object is an instance of the specified class or its subclass.
Step-by-step explanation:
To check whether a given object belongs to a class or its subclass in a programming language like Python, you would use the built-in isinstance() function. The isinstance() function takes two arguments. The first is the object you are checking, and the second is the class (or a tuple of classes) you want to check against. If the object is an instance of the class, or any subclass thereof, the function returns True; otherwise, it returns False.
Here is a simple code example:
class Parent:
pass
class Child(Parent):
pass
# Create instances
parent_instance = Parent()
child_instance = Child()
# Check instances
class_check = isinstance(child_instance, Parent) # True because Child is a subclass of Parent
print(class_check)
This code defines a parent class and a child class, creates instances of both, and then checks if the child_instance is an instance of the Parent class using isinstance(). The result will be True because Child inherits from Parent.