In MVC, how do I return a string result?

Question

In my AJAX call, I want to return a string value back to the calling page.

Should I use ActionResult or just return a string?

check [here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/30323853/2218697) to **return bootstrap alert message** — Shaiju T, May 19 '15 at 11:08

score 1176 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 29 '16 at 11:27

1176

You can just use the ContentResult to return a plain string:

public ActionResult Temp() {
    return Content("Hi there!");
}

ContentResult by default returns a text/plain as its contentType. This is overloadable so you can also do:

return Content("<xml>This is poorly formatted xml.</xml>", "text/xml");

edited Mar 29 '16 at 11:27

Bakudan

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answered Feb 16 '09 at 17:47

swilliams

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What is the contentType if your return type is a string? – user1886419 Jan 29 '14 at 15:16
7

I don't know how accurate this answer was back then, but currently `ContentResult` does `if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(ContentType))` before setting `HttpContext.Response.ContentType`. I'm seeing `text/html` with your first example, either that's the default now or it's an educated guess by the `HttpContext`. – user247702 Mar 12 '14 at 10:10
How can I Access in View ? – Pradeep Kumar Das Mar 22 '17 at 12:55
5

Small addition: instead of literally adding "text/plain" as a string, you could use a .NET framework constant like `MediaTypeNames.Text.Plain` or `MediaTypeNames.Text.Xml`. Although it only includes some of the most-used MIME types. _( https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.net.mime.mediatypenames )_ – Doku-so Nov 15 '17 at 12:45
Up voted, though I did need to specify the mime type as "text/plain" when returning HTML as text per @Stijn comment. – Yogi Jan 24 '18 at 23:46

score 117 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 16 '09 at 23:29

117

You can also just return string if you know that's the only thing the method will ever return. For example:

public string MyActionName() {
  return "Hi there!";
}

answered Feb 16 '09 at 23:29

Haacked

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Phil, is this a "Best Practice", could you please explain the difference between the your answer and @swilliam 's – David Perlman Nov 11 '12 at 09:59
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You can't return a string from a method which returns an ActionResult, so in this case you return Content("") as swilliams explained. If you only ever need to return a string, then you would have the method return a string, as Phil explained. – Arkiliknam Jan 25 '13 at 15:17
3

Assuming that same action has multiple `return` statements which are used to send either `string` or `JSON` or `View` based on conditions then we must use `Content` to return string. – DhruvJoshi Aug 26 '15 at 12:53
What is the trick for the compiler to allow return type to be "string" if expecting IActionResult? – Pete Alvin Jan 30 '23 at 18:12

Madhav Singh Raghav · Answer 3 · 2017-02-11T03:16:36.610

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public ActionResult GetAjaxValue()
{
   return Content("string value");
}

edited Feb 11 '17 at 03:16

answered Apr 27 '16 at 14:18

Madhav Singh Raghav

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better to explain more during answer – Mostafiz Apr 27 '16 at 14:43

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered May 04 '20 at 08:20

6

As of 2020, using ContentResult is still the right approach as proposed above, but the usage is as follows:

return new System.Web.Mvc.ContentResult
{
    Content = "Hi there! ☺",
    ContentType = "text/plain; charset=utf-8"
}

answered May 04 '20 at 08:20

Jack Miller

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score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 11 '20 at 10:04

There Are 2 ways to return a string from the controller to the view:

First

You could return only the string, but it will not be included in your .cshtml file. it will be just a string appearing in your browser.

Second

You could return a string as the Model object of View Result.

Here is the code sample to do this:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    // GET: Home
    // this will return just a string, not html
    public string index()
    {
        return "URL to show";
    }

    public ViewResult AutoProperty()
    {   
        string s = "this is a string ";
        // name of view , object you will pass
        return View("Result", s);

    }
}

In the view file to run AutoProperty, It will redirect you to the Result view and will send s
code to the view

<!--this will make this file accept string as it's model-->
@model string

@{
    Layout = null;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>
<head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <title>Result</title>
</head>
<body>
    <!--this will represent the string -->
    @Model
</body>
</html>

I run this at http://localhost:60227/Home/AutoProperty.

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited May 16 '17 at 13:20

0

public JsonResult GetAjaxValue() 
{
  return Json("string value", JsonRequetBehaviour.Allowget); 
}

edited May 16 '17 at 13:20

Naktibalda

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answered May 16 '17 at 12:45

Khursheed

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 17 '22 at 14:01

0

you can just return a string but some API's do not like it as the response type is not fitting the response,

[Produces("text/plain")]
public string Temp() {
    return Content("Hi there!");
}

this usually does the trick

answered Jan 17 '22 at 14:01

Walter Verhoeven

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In MVC, how do I return a string result?

7 Answers7

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