Does the pattern where you chain methods in your object by returning a reference to itself have a name?

Question

In most modern OO languages chaining methods together is common, and IMHO elegant, practice. In jquery, for example, you often see code like:

$('div').addClass('container').css('color', 'white').length

Does writing your objects to allow this have a name?

Answer 1

This is called a Fluent Interface.

Resources

• FluentInterface on Martin Fowler's bliki
• Fluent interface on Wikipedia

Answer 2

It's typically called "fluent" where each method returns a reference to the object you want to deal with next, allowing you to chain calls together.

In jQuery tutorials and such you'll hear it called "chaining"...it's just another description more heavily used in the community of what it allows not what it is, it's still a fluent interface.

Answer 3

Method Chaining is the core concept behind building a Fluent Interface

Answer 4

Douglas Crockford calls it a "cascade-style" of programming.