checking for class type

I was wondering if there was any way of checking for an
object's class type if its user defined.

Lets say for example, i have an arraylist called 'shopping bag',
which contains objects of the classes: toiletry, food, magazine,
etc, all user defined.

Now if i want to break up that arraylist into seperate arrays or
arraylists of class specific objects (eg. array of toiletries) how
would i go about checking which one of the classes each
object in the 'shopping bag' arraylist belongs to.

-Matt
noob extrordinaire

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PS. I'm referring to the VB.net language.

string type = object.GetType();

Errrr.... im not sure i get it. Could you please elaborate a
little if it's not too much trouble for you.

-Matt