What's an appropriate HTTP status code for "requested resource isn't found"?

Question

What HTTP status code is better to use in the following case?

I have a REST API to get some database entity basing on its id. The case is when the requested entity cannot be found in the database.

I would refer to [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/5604832/1519409). — inavda, Oct 25 '18 at 19:44
Possible duplicate of [What's the most appropriate HTTP status code for an "item not found" error page](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5604816/whats-the-most-appropriate-http-status-code-for-an-item-not-found-error-page) — ophychius, Oct 26 '18 at 09:09

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 25 '18 at 19:43

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I tend to use 404. That being said here's a wikipedia link for HTTP status codes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes

answered Oct 25 '18 at 19:43

DJN

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@sys463 Your API *resource* is the db entity. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10799198/what-are-rest-resources – Oct 25 '18 at 20:10

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 07 '21 at 11:02

404 is the status code suitable for this situation. It indicates a client error and indicates that a representation cannot be found for requested resource.

From the RFC 7231, the document that defines the semantics of the HTTP/1.1 protocol:

6.5.4. 404 Not Found

The 404 (Not Found) status code indicates that the origin server did not find a current representation for the target resource or is not willing to disclose that one exists. A 404 status code does not indicate whether this lack of representation is temporary or permanent; the 410(Gone) status code is preferred over 404 if the origin server knows, presumably through some configurable means, that the condition is likely to be permanent.

What's an appropriate HTTP status code for "requested resource isn't found"?

2 Answers2