IsInstanceOfClass
The argument to Class#isInstance(Object) should not be a Class

The problem

Passing an argument of type Class to Class#instanceOf(Class) is usually a mistake.

Calling clazz.instanceOf(obj) for some clazz with type Class<T> is equivalent to obj instanceof T. The instanceOf method exists for cases where the type T is not known statically.

When a class literal is passed as the argument of instanceOf, the result will only be true if the class literal on left hand side is equal to Class.class.

For example, the following code returns true if and only if the type A is equal to Class (i.e. lhs is equal to Class.class).

<A, B> boolean f(Class<A> lhs, Class<B> rhs) {
  return lhs.instanceOf(rhs); // equivalent to 'lhs == Class.class'
}

To test if the type represented by a class literal is a subtype of the type represented by some other class literal, isAssignableFrom should be used instead:

<A, B> boolean f(Class<A> lhs, Class<B> rhs) {
  return lhs.isAssignableFrom(rhs); // equivalent to 'B instanceof A'
}

Suppression

Suppress false positives by adding the suppression annotation @SuppressWarnings("IsInstanceOfClass") to the enclosing element.