Can I have an abstract builder class in java with method chaining without doing unsafe operations?

Question

I\'m trying to have an abstract base class for some builder classes so I can easily reuse code between the Builder implementations. I want my builders to support method chaining

Answer 1

One alternative is not to use generics, but use overrides:

abstract class AbstractBuilder
{
   public AbstractBuilder foo()
   {
      // set some property
      return this;
   }
}

class TheBuilder extends AbstractBuilder
{
   @Override public TheBuilder foo()
   {
      super.foo(); return this;
   }
   public TheBuilder bar()
   {
      // set some other property
      return this;
   }

   public Object build()
   {
      return new Object();
   }
}