Does Java bean's setter permit return this?

Question

can I define setter method to return this rather than void?

Like:

ClassA setItem1() {
      return this;
}

ClassA setItem2() {
      return this;
}
         


        

Answer 1

Yes. This is a somewhat common technique called Method Chaining, and can be used to create a "fluent interface".

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_chaining, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluent_interface