Action Result In ASP.NET MVC

namespace System.Web.Mvc  
{  
    public abstract class ActionResult  
    {  
        //  
        // Summary:  
        //     Initializes a new instance of the System.Web.Mvc.ActionResult class.  
        protected ActionResult();  
    }  
}

namespace System.Web.Mvc  
{  
    public abstract class ActionResult  
    {  
        //  
        // Summary:  
        //     Initializes a new instance of the System.Web.Mvc.ActionResult class.  
        protected ActionResult();  
    }  
}  

public ActionResult Index()  
{  
    bool answer = DateTime.Now.Day + 2 == 5;  
    if (answer)  
    {  
        return Content("Correct");  
    }  
    else  
    {  
        return View();  
    }  
}  

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public ViewResult Index()  
    {  
        return View();  
    }  
}  

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public ViewResult Index()  
    {  
        return View(“Second View” );  
    }  
}  `

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public PartialViewResult Index()  
    {  
        return PartialView("Second View");  
    }  
}  

public class StudentController : Controller  
{  
    public PartialViewResult Name()  
    {  
        return View("_SecondView");  
    }  
}  

The "Content" result is a datatype that is responsible for the return of content. But the point of interest is you will have proper control over the returned content. I mean to say that you have to add the content in the “Content” helping method of the ContentResult type. Here, you can pass the content like HTML content, Javascript content, or any other content. Let’s understand it with examples.

The code of the Home controller is given below.

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public ContentResult Index()  
    {  
        return Content("Zain Ul Hassan");

Its output will be.

You can also give the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) type in the Content helper method to tell the MVC to take appropriate action after recognizing the content. The code is shown below.

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public ContentResult Index()  
    {  
        return Content("Zain Ul Hassan", "text/html");       
     }   
} 

Output is the same as above.

You can also give Javascript content, which will be returned by the ContentResult type. Let’s take an example.

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public ContentResult Index()  
    {  
        return Content( "" );  
    }  
}  

The output will have an alert, as shown below.

So you can use ContentResult datatype in the above way.

EmptyResult

This type is genuinely for returning nothing. But the problem is this EmptyResult type doesn’t have any helper method. So we can use it by making its object, as shown below.

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public EmptyResult Index()  
    {  
        return new EmptyResult();  
    }  
}  

But if you want to use ActionResult, then MVC will automatically perceive that it is EmptyResult. For code, see below.

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public ActionResult Index()  
    {  
        return null;  
    }  
}  

So, it is the use of the EmptyResult type.

FileResult

FileResult is a type which is used to return the file to the browser. The helper method for this type is File, which has many overloads. So, if we use the following overload and specify only the URL of the file and the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) type, then we should see the content of the file in the browser. Let’s take an example.

The overload we use is.

protected internal FilePathResult File(string fileName, string contentType);  

The code for the action method using the FileResult type is as follows.

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public FileResult Index()  
    {  
        return File("~/Files/text.txt", "text/plain");  
    }  
}  

This file is included in the project, and the URL is given above. The output is given below.

Now, if you want to return the file to a byte array, you have to use the following code.

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public FileResult Index()  
    {  
        byte[] fileBytes = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(Server.MapPath("~/Files/text.txt"));  
        return File(fileBytes, "text/plain");  
    }  
}  

The output is the same as above.

Now, if you don’t want to show the file in the browser and want your file to be asked to download, then you have to use the following overload the file helper method.

protected internal virtual FilePathResult File(string fileName, string contentType, string fileDownloadName);  

The code of action using FileResult is given below.

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public FileResult Index()  
    {  
        return File(Url.Content("~/Files/text.txt"), "text/plain", "testFile.txt");  
    }  
}

Then, the output will be as shown below.

Hence it is the use of FileResult in different scenarios.

JsonResult

It is the derived type of ActionResult which is used to represent the JSON data. To see how we can JSONify any data, you can see the code below.

public JsonResult Index()  
{  
    return Json(new { Name = "Zain Ul Hassan", ID = 1 });  
}  

Its output is as follows.

You will get this error after executing the above code. Now, understand what the problem here is.

As you know, JSON contains your encoded data that can be precious, so MVC strictly stops the sharing of information over a GET request. MVC is trying to prevent you from JSON hacking.

So if you want to share the information over the GET request then you have to use the code shown below.

public JsonResult Index()  
{  
    return Json(new { Name = "Zain Ul Hassan", ID = 1 }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);  
}  

The output will become.

So, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet permits the MVC to share the information over the GET request. But you should use the above feature when you are sure that your JSON data doesn’t contain sensitive data.

JavaScriptResult

This derived type is used to return the JavaScript code from the controller. When it executes, we see the javascript code, as we mentioned in the controller’s action method. For details, let’s take an example.

public JavaScriptResult Index()  
{  
    return JavaScript("alert('Zain Ul hassan')");  
}  

The output is as shown below.

Redirection results

This type of ActionResult is used for redirection purposes, which you will see with examples here. There are 2 types of redirection results.

• RedirectResult
• Redirect to Action Result

RedirectionResult

If you use this type, then it’ll redirect to the URL you specified. An example is given below.

public RedirectResult Index()  
{  
    return Redirect("https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/members/zain-ul-hassan2");  
}  

In the output, the specified URL will open, as shown below.

RedirectionResult is better for redirection to live URLs, which means it is not a best practice to use it for redirection to the local pages of the current app. For this purpose, use RedirectionToRouteResult as explained below.

RedirectionToRouteResult

It is responsible for the redirection of the actions within the application. There are many helper methods in it, which are overloads. We use RedirectToRoute, which redirects us to the action within the specified controller. Let’s look at its example.

public RedirectToRouteResult Index()  
{  
    return RedirectToRoute(new { controller = "Student", action = "Name" });  
}  

We have a Name action method within the Student controller, and the code of the Name view is given below.

Redirection successfull

So, the output is as follows.

Now, if you are in the same controller and don’t want to give the name of the controller, then the better option is the RedirectToAction helper method. Look at the code below,

public class HomeController : Controller  
{  
    public RedirectToRouteResult Index()  
    {  
        return RedirectToAction("SecondIndex");  
    }  
    public ActionResult SecondIndex()  
    {  
        return View();  
    }  
}  

The View of SecondIndex’s code is below.

ThisistheSecondIndexofthesamecontrollernamedas"Home"

The output is as follows.

As you can see, the helper method RedirectToAction is used for calling action within the current controller, so if MVC doesn’t find that, a 404 error will occur. RedirectToAction has many overloads; you can give controllers, actions, route values, and much more. So you have to use it according to your scenario.

Status result

Its responsibility is to give the status code to the browser. There are three types of this set explained below.

• HttpStatusCodeResult
• HttpUnauthorizedResult
• HttpNotFoundResult

HttpStatusCodeResult

This type is used to give HTTP status code to the browser. Look at its example.

public HttpStatusCodeResult Index()  
{  
    return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized);  
}  

The output is as shown below.

You can show your message after using the overloaded version of the type HttpStatusCodeResult.

public HttpStatusCodeResult Index()  
{  
    return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized, "Sorry! You don't have access.");  
}  

Output

Here, HttpStatusCode is coming from the System.Net namespace. And it contains all the HTTP status codes.

If you don’t want to use System.Net namespace, then HttpStatusCodeResult has an overload whose output will be the same as above. See the code below.

public HttpStatusCodeResult Index()  
{  
    return new HttpUnauthorizedResult("Sorry! You don't have access.");  
}  

The output is the same as above, but the code is looking more readable.

HttpNotFoundResult

This is also an overload of HttpStatusCodeResult, but it has the helper method; we don’t have to make an anonymous object. The code is as follows.

public HttpNotFoundResult Index()  
{  
    return HttpNotFound("Sorry! You don't have access.");  
}  

Output

Summary

These were the basic and foremost things to understand about Action Results. If you have any queries, then feel free to contact me in the comments. Also, giving feedback, either positive or negative, will help me to make my articles better and increase my enthusiasm to share my knowledge.