As you can see, there are three categories of data types of ActionResult, Content Returning Results. Redirection Results. Status Results.
Return types of action method colud be json, view, partial view etc.
The following table shows the built-in action result types, ViewResult: Renders a view as a Web page. PartialViewResult: Renders a partial view ContentResult : Returns a string FileContentResult: Returns file content FilePathResult : Returns file content FileStreamResult: Returns file content EmptyResult: Returns nothing JavaScriptResult: Returns script for execution JsonResult: Returns JSON formatted data RedirectToResult: Redirects to the specified URL HttpUnauthorizedResult: Returns 403 HTTP Status code RedirectToRouteResult" Redirects to different action/different controller action