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What is the Post/Redirect/Get pattern, and why use it?

ASP.NET MVC Controllers & Actions Basic Fresher1–2 Yrs Conceptual 1 min read

Quick Answer

After a successful form POST, instead of returning a view directly, you RedirectToAction to a GET action. This means the browser's address bar shows a GET URL, so pressing refresh re-issues the GET — not the POST — preventing accidental double submissions and the “confirm form resubmission” dialog.

Post/Redirect/Get means after a form submission succeeds, I don't render a view from the POST action — I redirect to a GET action, usually the details page for the record I just created. The reason is the browser refresh: if the page you're looking at came from a POST, refreshing re-submits the form and you get a duplicate, or that annoying resubmission warning. After the redirect the URL is a GET, so refresh just re-fetches the page. If validation fails, though, I do return the view directly so the user sees their input and the errors.

  • POST fails validation → return the view with ModelState errors (no redirect — you need to show the errors and the entered data).
  • POST succeeds → save, put a flash message in TempData, return RedirectToAction(nameof(Details), new { id }).
  • Also gives a bookmarkable, shareable result URL.
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