Is it bad practice to make a setter return “this”?

Question

Is it a good or bad idea to make setters in java return \"this\"?

public Employee setName(String name){
   this.name = name;
   return this;
}

Answer 1

If you don't want to return 'this' from the setter but don't want to use the second option you can use the following syntax to set properties:

list.add(new Employee()
{{
    setName("Jack Sparrow");
    setId(1);
    setFoo("bacon!");
}});

As an aside I think its slightly cleaner in C#:

list.Add(new Employee() {
    Name = "Jack Sparrow",
    Id = 1,
    Foo = "bacon!"
});