Returning a 404 from an explicitly typed ASP.NET Core API controller (not IActionResult)

Question

ASP.NET Core API controllers typically return explicit types (and do so by default if you create a new project), something like:

[Route(\"api/[controller]\")         


        

Answer 1

In order to accomplish something like that(still, I think that the best approach should be using IActionResult), you can follow, where you can throw an HttpResponseException if your Thing is null:

// GET api/things/5
[HttpGet("{id}")]
public async Task GetAsync(int id)
{
    Thing thingFromDB = await GetThingFromDBAsync();
    if(thingFromDB == null){
        throw new HttpResponseException(HttpStatusCode.NotFound); // This returns HTTP 404
    }
    // Process thingFromDB, blah blah blah
    return thing;
}