How to return a specific status code and no contents from Controller?

Question

I want the example controller below to return a status code 418 with no contents. Setting the status code is easy enough but then it seems like there is something that needs to be done to signal the end of the request. In MVC prior to ASP.NET Core or in WebForms that might be a call to Response.End() but how does it work in ASP.NET Core where Response.End does not exist?

public class ExampleController : Controller
{
    [HttpGet][Route("/example/main")]
    public IActionResult Main()
    {
        this.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = 418; // I'm a teapot
        // How to end the request?
        // I don't actually want to return a view but perhaps the next
        // line is required anyway?
        return View();   
    }
}

Gabriel · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-03 16:08:52Z

383

this.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = 418; // I'm a teapot

How to end the request?

Try other solution, just:

return StatusCode(418);

You could use StatusCode(???) to return any HTTP status code.

Also, you can use dedicated results:

Success:

return Ok() ← Http status code 200
return Created() ← Http status code 201
return NoContent(); ← Http status code 204

Client Error:

return BadRequest(); ← Http status code 400
return Unauthorized(); ← Http status code 401
return NotFound(); ← Http status code 404

More details:

ControllerBase Class (Thanks @Technetium)
StatusCodes.cs (consts aviable in ASP.NET Core)
HTTP Status Codes on Wiki
HTTP Status Codes IANA

edited May 3, 2019 at 16:08

Gabriel

1,9522 gold badges21 silver badges37 bronze badges

answered Jun 7, 2016 at 23:07

Lukasz Mk

7,4302 gold badges32 silver badges44 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

GeorgiG Over a year ago

The simplicity and virtue of this approach can't be overstated! I had a need to map an HttpResponseMessage and return it from my own endpoint and this was the only comment that was actually helpful.

Paul Over a year ago

Sorry, in ASP.NET Core SOAP service this has no HttpContext.

Neutrino Over a year ago

But returning StatusCode(418) does return content. It returns a JSON object containing the status code and a few other properties, so I don't see how this is even a valid answer to the question.

Lukasz Mk Over a year ago

@Neutrino what's returned depends really on your app settings. In some cases (for Api controllers and when not custom data/object returned) .NET Core returns ProblemDetails object - this is a machine-readable format for specifying errors in HTTP API responses based on tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7807

derHugo · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-25 14:42:47Z

32

The best way to do it is:

return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status418ImATeapot, "Error message");

StatusCodes has every kind of return status and you can see all of them here.

Once you choose your StatusCode, return it with a message.

edited Oct 25, 2021 at 14:42

derHugo

92.6k9 gold badges94 silver badges141 bronze badges

answered Apr 20, 2020 at 13:13

Gabriel Arruda

6559 silver badges11 bronze badges

1 Comment

Joe Coyle Over a year ago

Thank you for making me aware of this remarkably useful status code

sac80644 · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-19 23:26:36Z

Look at how the current Object Results are created. Here is the BadRequestObjectResult. Just an extension of the ObjectResult with a value and StatusCode.

https://github.com/aspnet/Mvc/blob/master/src/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core/BadRequestObjectResult.cs

I created a TimeoutExceptionObjectResult just the same way for 408.

/// <summary>
/// An <see cref="ObjectResult"/> that when executed will produce a Request Timeout (408) response.
/// </summary>
[DefaultStatusCode(DefaultStatusCode)]
public class TimeoutExceptionObjectResult : ObjectResult
{
    private const int DefaultStatusCode = StatusCodes.Status408RequestTimeout;

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a new <see cref="TimeoutExceptionObjectResult"/> instance.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="error">Contains the errors to be returned to the client.</param>
    public TimeoutExceptionObjectResult(object error)
        : base(error)
    {
        StatusCode = DefaultStatusCode;
    }
}

Client:

if (ex is TimeoutException)
{
    return new TimeoutExceptionObjectResult("The request timed out.");
}

KushalSeth · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-02 07:43:54Z

8

For .Net 5 or .Net 6 based API (Could work in .Net Core 3x as well, didn't checked)

public async Task<ActionResult<List<DocumentsResponseDto>>> SaveDocumentDetails([FromBody] List<DocumentDetailsRequestDto> documentDetailsRequestDto)
{

 var response = await _documentService.SaveDocumentDetails(documentDetailsRequestDto);

 return StatusCode(Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.StatusCodes.Status207MultiStatus, response); 
}

answered May 2, 2022 at 7:43

KushalSeth

5,0461 gold badge41 silver badges39 bronze badges

Comments

PAVITRA · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-15 05:42:17Z

7

If anyone wants to do this with a IHttpActionResult may be in a Web API project, Below might be helpful.

// GET: api/Default/
public IHttpActionResult Get()
{
    //return Ok();//200
    //return StatusCode(HttpStatusCode.Accepted);//202
    //return BadRequest();//400
    //return InternalServerError();//500
    //return Unauthorized();//401
    return Ok();
}

answered Jul 15, 2019 at 5:42

PAVITRA

8712 gold badges15 silver badges26 bronze badges

1 Comment

Jim G. Over a year ago

Does InternalServerError exist as an IHttpActionResult?

PTD · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-11 08:21:07Z

6

This code might work for non-.NET Core MVC controllers:

this.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = 418; // I'm a teapot
return Json(new { status = "mer" }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);

edited Jul 11, 2018 at 8:21

PTD

1,0731 gold badge16 silver badges23 bronze badges

answered Dec 7, 2017 at 12:45

sobelito

1,62518 silver badges13 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to return a specific status code and no contents from Controller?

6 Answers 6

4 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

6 Answers 6

4 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related