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

I don't know Java but I've done this in C++. Other people have said it makes the lines really long and really hard to read, but I've done it like this lots of times:

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

This is even better:

list.add(
    new Employee("Jack Sparrow")
    .Id(1)
    .foo("bacon!"));

at least, I think. But you're welcome to downvote me and call me an awful programmer if you wish. And I don't know if you're allowed to even do this in Java.