The only PHP type operator: instanceof is used to determine whether a given object, its parents or their implemented interfaces are of a specified object class.Before this is_a() was used but is_a() has been deprecated in favor of instanceof.

    <?php
    class A { }
    class B { }
    $like = new A;
    if ($like instanceof A) 
     {
      echo 'A';
     }
    if ($like instanceof B) 
     {
      echo 'B';
     }
    ?>

    A

In the above example like is an object of class A, so "A" is displayed as answer