Question

From http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/web-api-routing-and-actions/exception-handling

HttpResponseException

What happens if a Web API controller throws an exception? By default,
most exceptions are translated into an HTTP response with status code
500, Internal Server Error.

The HttpResponseException type is a special case. This exception
returns any HTTP status code that you specify in the constructor of
the exception.

Except that it doesn’t. Fiddler shows me a 500 is returned.

However, HttpException seems to do what that article says.

Is the documentation wrong or am I missing something?

UPDATE

While typing that out, I had an idea. I tried both from two controllers, an ApiController and a standard MVC controller.

The two exception work in reverse to each other depending on the type of controller they’re thrown from.

• Use HttpResponseException to return a proper HTTP code from an API
  controller.
• Use HttpException to return a proper HTTP code from an
  MVC controller.

Answer 1

[Moved my update to an answer]

While typing that out, I had an idea. I tried both from two controllers, an ApiController and a standard MVC controller.

The two exception work in reverse to each other depending on the type of controller they’re thrown from.

• Use HttpResponseException to return a proper HTTP code from an API controller.
• Use HttpException to return a proper HTTP code from an MVC controller.