ViewResult V/S ActionResult
asp.net-mvc, asp.net-mvc-3
Solution
`ActionResult` is base type while `ViewResult` is subtype of `ActionResult`.
When you set Action's return type `ActionResult`, you can return any subtype of it e.g Json,PartialView,View,RedirectToAction.
But when you use subtype as in this case `ViewResult` you are bounding your action that it will only return subtype as result which in this case is View.
When you use `ActionResult` as return type, you can return the following from Action(which means following are the subtypes of ActionResult), as explained on forums.asp.net:
ActionResult is a general result type that can have several subtypes (from "ASP.NET MVC 1.0 Quickly" Book):
a) ViewResult
Renders a specifed view to the response stream
b) PartialViewResult
Renders a specifed partial view to the response stream
c) EmptyResult
Basically does nothing; an empty response is given
d) RedirectResult
Performs an HTTP redirection to a specifed URL
e) RedirectToRouteResult
Performs an HTTP redirection to a URL that is determined by the routing engine, based on given route data
f) JsonResult
Serializes a given ViewData object to JSON format
g) JavaScriptResult
Returns a piece of JavaScript code that can be executed on the client
h) ContentResult
Writes content to the response stream without requiring a view
i) FileContentResult
Returns a fle to the client
j) FileStreamResult
Returns a fle to the client, which is provided by a Stream
k) FilePathResult
Returns a fle to the client
When to Use ViewResult
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.
For more details:
http://forums.asp.net/t/1448398.aspx
Also you can refer here:
http://www.slideshare.net/umarali1981/difference-between-action-result-and-viewresult
Problem
How to decide whether to use ActionResult or ViewResult? I know that ActionResult is an abstract class with ViewResult as a subtype but I have seen examples using both of these for the same functionality. Is there something that differentiates between them?