Summary of HTTP Methods for RESTful APIs

Summary of HTTP Methods for RESTful APIs

Below table summarises the use of HTTP methods discussed above.

HTTP METHOD	CRUD	ENTIRE COLLECTION (E.G. /USERS)	SPECIFIC ITEM (E.G. /USERS/123)
POST	Create	201 (Created), ‘Location’ header with link to /users/{id} containing new ID.	Avoid using POST on single resource
GET	Read	200 (OK), list of users. Use pagination, sorting and filtering to navigate big lists.	200 (OK), single user. 404 (Not Found), if ID not found or invalid.
PUT	Update/Replace	404 (Not Found), unless you want to update every resource in the entire collection of resource.	200 (OK) or 204 (No Content). Use 404 (Not Found), if ID not found or invalid.
PATCH	Partial Update/Modify	404 (Not Found), unless you want to modify the collection itself.	200 (OK) or 204 (No Content). Use 404 (Not Found), if ID not found or invalid.
DELETE	Delete	404 (Not Found), unless you want to delete the whole collection — use with caution.	200 (OK). 404 (Not Found), if ID not found or invalid.