Understanding the Differences: IHttpActionResult vs IActionResult vs ActionResult in C#

Summary: Explore the key differences between IActionResult, ActionResult, and IHttpActionResult in C#. Understand when and how to use them effectively in your .NET applications.
---

When developing web applications with C, understanding the different types of action results available in ASP.NET is crucial. Among the commonly used interfaces and classes are IHttpActionResult, IActionResult, and ActionResult. This post aims to shed light on their differences and when to use each one.

IHttpActionResult vs IActionResult

IHttpActionResult

IHttpActionResult is an interface that was introduced in ASP.NET Web API 2. This interface provides a unified way to create HTTP responses and can be used to compose various HTTP responses types, such as OK, NotFound, BadRequest, etc. When you return an IHttpActionResult from a controller action, you are returning a delegate that will eventually build and execute an HttpResponseMessage.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

IActionResult

On the other hand, IActionResult is used in ASP.NET Core MVC. It is a more general abstraction than IHttpActionResult, allowing it to encompass more return types beyond HTTP responses. IActionResult is an important part of the controller's action methods to return different types of responses, such as views, JSON data, files, or even another action.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

The primary advantage of IActionResult is its flexibility. It provides a more abstract and flexible way to define an action's possible return types.

ActionResult

ActionResult serves as a base class that implements IActionResult. This means, whenever you use ActionResult, you are taking advantage of all its derived classes like ViewResult, JsonResult, PartialViewResult, and so on.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Using the ActionResult base class as the return type can simplify the type hierarchy in your application, especially when you are frequently returning different types of ActionResult derived types.

Key Differences

The key differences between these types come down to the frameworks they are used with and their flexibility:

IHttpActionResult: Primarily used in ASP.NET Web API, designed specifically for creating HTTP response messages.

IActionResult: A flexible abstraction used in ASP.NET Core MVC, allowing return types encompassing HTTP responses, Views, JSON, and more.

ActionResult: A base class that implements IActionResult, with several derived classes allowing simplified return types for various response types.

Summary

To sum up, understanding the differences between IHttpActionResult, IActionResult, and ActionResult is essential for developing robust ASP.NET applications. Use IHttpActionResult when working with ASP.NET Web API, favor IActionResult for its flexibility in ASP.NET Core MVC, and utilize ActionResult as a base class to simplify return types when necessary.