Objects and companions

We can even get a reference to objects or companion objects through reflection. For example, take the following definition of a class and a companion object:

    class Aircraft(name: String, manufacturer: String, capacity: Int)  { 
      companion object { 
        fun boeing(name: String, capacity: Int) = Aircraft(name,  "Boeing", capacity) 
      } 
    } 

Given this, we can retrieve a reference to the companion object using the appropriately named companionObject property defined on the KClass type:

    val kclass = Aircraft::class 
    val companionKClass = kclass.companionObject 

From then on, we have another KClass instance, this one modeling the functions and members of the companion object.

In fact, using the companionObjectInstance property, we can even get a handle to the instance of the companion object. Then, we could invoke functions or access properties on it directly if we cast to the appropriate type:

    val kclass = Aircraft::class 
    val...