Understanding Action Results

A controller action returns something called an action result. An action result is what a controller action returns in response to a browser request.

The ASP.NET MVC framework supports several types of action results including:

1. ViewResult – Represents HTML and markup.
2. EmptyResult – Represents no result.
3. RedirectResult – Represents a redirection to a new URL.
4. JsonResult – Represents a JavaScript Object Notation result that can be used in an AJAX application.
5. JavaScriptResult – Represents a JavaScript script.
6. ContentResult – Represents a text result.
7. FileContentResult – Represents a downloadable file (with the binary content).
8. FilePathResult – Represents a downloadable file (with a path).
9. FileStreamResult – Represents a downloadable file (with a file stream).

All of these action results inherit from the base ActionResult class.

…you call one of the following methods of the Controller base class:

1. View – Returns a ViewResult action result.
2. Redirect – Returns a RedirectResult action result.
3. RedirectToAction – Returns a RedirectToRouteResult action result.
4. RedirectToRoute – Returns a RedirectToRouteResult action result.
5. Json – Returns a JsonResult action result.
6. JavaScriptResult – Returns a JavaScriptResult.
7. Content – Returns a ContentResult action result.
8. File – Returns a FileContentResult, FilePathResult, or FileStreamResult depending on the parameters passed to the method.

So, if you want to return a View to the browser, you call the View() method. If you want to redirect the user from one controller action to another, you call the RedirectToAction() method.

[http://www.asp.net/Learn/mvc/tutorial-03-cs.aspx]