Difference Between ViewResult and ActionResult

Question

What is the difference between ViewResult   and ActionResult   in ASP NET MVC   public ViewResult Index         return View       public ActionResult Index         return View

User · Answer

To save you some time here is the answer from a link in a previous answer at https://forums.asp.net/t/1448398.aspx

ActionResult is an abstract class, and it's base class for ViewResult class.

In MVC framework, it uses ActionResult class to reference the object your action method returns. And invokes ExecuteResult method on it.

And ViewResult is an implementation for this abstract class. It will try to find a view page (usually aspx page) in some predefined paths(/views/controllername/, /views/shared/, etc) by the given view name.

It's usually a good practice to have your method return a more specific class. So if you are sure that your action method will return some view page, you can use ViewResult. But if your action method may have different behavior, like either render a view or perform a redirection. You can use the more general base class ActionResult as the return type.

User · Answer

In Controller i have specified the below code with ActionResult which is a base class that can have 11 subtypes in MVC like   ViewResult  PartialViewResult  EmptyResult  RedirectResult   RedirectToRouteResult  JsonResult  JavaScriptResult  ContentResult   FileContentResult  FileStreamResult  FilePathResult       public ActionResult Index                                         if  HttpContext Session  LoggedInUser      null                                                return RedirectToAction  Login    Home                                               else                                               return View       returns ViewResult                                            More Examples       HttpPost      public ActionResult Index string Name             ViewBag Message    Hello        return Redirect  Account Login      returns RedirectResult             HttpPost      public ActionResult Index string Name            return RedirectToRoute  RouteName       returns RedirectToRouteResult         Likewise we can return all these 11 subtypes by using ActionResult   without specifying every subtype method explicitly  ActionResult is the best thing if you are returning different types of views

User · Answer

ViewResult is a subclass of ActionResult   The View method returns a ViewResult   So really these two code snippets do the exact same thing   The only difference is that with the ActionResult one  your controller isn t promising to return a view - you could change the method body to conditionally return a RedirectResult or something else without changing the method definition

User · Answer

ActionResult is an abstract class that can have several subtypes   ActionResult Subtypes   ViewResult - Renders a specifed view to the response stream PartialViewResult - Renders a specifed partial view to the response stream EmptyResult - An empty response is returned RedirectResult - Performs an HTTP redirection to a specifed URL RedirectToRouteResult - Performs an HTTP redirection to a URL that is determined  by the  routing engine  based on given route data JsonResult - Serializes a given ViewData object to JSON format JavaScriptResult - Returns a piece of JavaScript code that can be executed on the client ContentResult - Writes content to the response stream without requiring  a view FileContentResult - Returns a file to the client FileStreamResult - Returns a file to the client  which is provided by a Stream FilePathResult - Returns a file to the client   Resources   What s the difference between ActionResult and ViewResult for action method   ASP NET Forums

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In the Controller   one could use the below syntax  public ViewResult EditEmployee         return View       public ActionResult EditEmployee         return View        In the above example   only the return type varies   one returns ViewResult whereas the other one returns ActionResult   ActionResult is an abstract class   It can accept   ViewResult   PartialViewResult  EmptyResult   RedirectResult   RedirectToRouteResult   JsonResult   JavaScriptResult   ContentResult  FileContentResult   FileStreamResult   FilePathResult etc   The ViewResult is a subclass of ActionResult

User · Answer

ActionResult is an abstract class   ViewResult derives from ActionResult  Other derived classes include JsonResult and PartialViewResult   You declare it this way so you can take advantage of polymorphism and return different types in the same method   e g   public ActionResult Foo        if  someCondition       return View       returns ViewResult    else      return Json       returns JsonResult

User · Answer

While other answers have noted the differences correctly  note that if you are in fact returning a ViewResult only it is better to return the more specific type rather than the base ActionResult type  An obvious exception to this principle is when your method returns multiple types deriving from ActionResult   For a full discussion of the reasons behind this principle please see the related discussion here  Must ASP NET MVC Controller Methods Return ActionResult

User · Answer

It s for the same reason you don t write every method of every class to return  object   You should be as specific as you can  This is especially valuable if you re planning to write unit tests  No more testing return types and or casting the result

[asp.net] Difference Between ViewResult() and ActionResult()

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