In unit testing, the setup method is used to create the objects needed for testing.
In those setup methods, I like using assertions: I know what values I want to see in those objects, and I like to document that knowledge via an assertion.
In a recent post on unit tests calling other unit tests here on stackoverflow, the general feeling seems to be that unit tests should not call other tests: The answer to that question seems to be that you should refactor your setup, so that test cases do not depend on each other.
But there isn't much difference in a "setup-with-asserts" and a unit test calling other unit tests.
Hence my question: Is it good practice to have assertions in setup methods?
EDIT:
The answer turns out to be: this is not a good practice in general. If the setup results need to be tested, it is recommended to add a separate test method with the assertions (the answer I ticked); for documenting intent, consider using Java asserts.