What is the difference between PUT, POST and PATCH?

Question

What is the difference between PUT, POST and PATCH methods in HTTP protocol?

Imitate

https://mcmap.net/q/36058/-what-is-the-difference-between-post-and-put-in-http – Effervescent

possible duplicate of PUT vs POST in REST – Effervescent

Using anything other than GET/POST is insane in modern web APIs. Too many do it. URIs identified in most modern apps ARE NOT resources to be replaced, updated, etc. They're not documents. They're PROCEDURES being called. The URI itself rarely identifies an actual resource, other than the method being invoked. Therefore, use GET for querystring requests and POSTs when you need to post JSON data or files in the body of the request. IMO, anything else is trying to shoehorn obsolete concepts involving URIs and operations on static HTML documents into a new architecture that looks nothing like it. – Dotterel

All great answers. I just wanted to share my answer of the differences and when you should use each one. – Acquainted

@Dotterel And the procedures you’re referring to involve creation, deletion, and modification of resources. No better way to convey such ideas than being RESTful. Why not? – Menado

@Triynko, somehow you got stuck at Level 0 of the Richardson Maturity Model, time to move on: martinfowler.com/articles/richardsonMaturityModel.html – Synge

@MarcelToth In conclusion, is it recommended to use all the verbs or in practical terms is GET/POST enough? – Cabman

Is it shoehorning "obsolete" concepts into "modern" systems, or is it struggling with the impedance mismatch between "well-designed" concepts and "badly-designed" systems? – Ise

Answer 1

Difference between PUT, POST, GET, DELETE and PATCH in HTTP Verbs:

The most commonly used HTTP verbs POST, GET, PUT, DELETE are similar to CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations in database. We specify these HTTP verbs in the capital case. So, the below is the comparison between them.

1. Create - POST
2. Read - GET
3. Update - PUT
4. Delete - DELETE

PATCH: Submits a partial modification to a resource. If you only need to update one field for the resource, you may want to use the PATCH method.

Note:
Since POST, PUT, DELETE modifies the content, the tests with Fiddler for the below url just mimicks the updations. It doesn't delete or modify actually. We can just see the status codes to check whether insertions, updations, deletions occur.

URL: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/

1. GET:

GET is the simplest type of HTTP request method; the one that browsers use each time you click a link or type a URL into the address bar. It instructs the server to transmit the data identified by the URL to the client. Data should never be modified on the server side as a result of a GET request. In this sense, a GET request is read-only.

Checking with Fiddler or PostMan: We can use Fiddler for checking the response. Open Fiddler and select the Compose tab. Specify the verb and url as shown below and click Execute to check the response.

Verb: GET

url: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/

Response: You will get the response as:

"userId": 1,  "id": 1,  "title": "sunt aut...",  "body": "quia et suscipit..."

In the “happy” (or non-error) path, GET returns a representation in XML or JSON and an HTTP response code of 200 (OK). In an error case, it most often returns a 404 (NOT FOUND) or 400 (BAD REQUEST).

2) POST:

The POST verb is mostly utilized to create new resources. In particular, it's used to create subordinate resources. That is, subordinate to some other (e.g. parent) resource.

On successful creation, return HTTP status 201, returning a Location header with a link to the newly-created resource with the 201 HTTP status.

Checking with Fiddler or PostMan: We can use Fiddler for checking the response. Open Fiddler and select the Compose tab. Specify the verb and url as shown below and click Execute to check the response.

Verb: POST

url: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/

Request Body:

data: {
   title: 'foo',
   body: 'bar',
   userId: 1000,
   Id : 1000
}

Response: You would receive the response code as 201.

If we want to check the inserted record with Id = 1000 change the verb to Get and use the same url and click Execute.

As said earlier, the above url only allows reads (GET), we cannot read the updated data in real.

3) PUT:

PUT is most-often utilized for update capabilities, PUT-ing to a known resource URI with the request body containing the newly-updated representation of the original resource.

Checking with Fiddler or PostMan: We can use Fiddler for checking the response. Open Fiddler and select the Compose tab. Specify the verb and url as shown below and click Execute to check the response.

Verb: PUT

url: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1

Request Body:

data: {
   title: 'foo',
   body: 'bar',
   userId: 1,
   Id : 1
}

Response: On successful update it returns status 200 (or 204 if not returning any content in the body) from a PUT.

4) DELETE:

DELETE is pretty easy to understand. It is used to delete a resource identified by a URI.

On successful deletion, return HTTP status 200 (OK) along with a response body, perhaps the representation of the deleted item (often demands too much bandwidth), or a wrapped response (see Return Values below). Either that or return HTTP status 204 (NO CONTENT) with no response body. In other words, a 204 status with no body, or the JSEND-style response and HTTP status 200 are the recommended responses.

Checking with Fiddler or PostMan: We can use Fiddler for checking the response. Open Fiddler and select the Compose tab. Specify the verb and url as shown below and click Execute to check the response.

Verb: DELETE

url: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1

Response: On successful deletion it returns HTTP status 200 (OK) along with a response body.

Example between PUT and PATCH

PUT

If I had to change my first name then send PUT request for Update:

{ "first": "Nazmul", "last": "hasan" }

So, here in order to update the first name we need to send all the parameters of the data again.

PATCH:

Patch request says that we would only send the data that we need to modify without modifying or effecting other parts of the data. Ex: if we need to update only the first name, we pass only the first name.

Please refer the below links for more information:

• https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/
• https://github.com/typicode/jsonplaceholder#how-to
• What is the main difference between PATCH and PUT request?
• http://www.restapitutorial.com/lessons/httpmethods.html

Leg

PUT is not update. PUT is create or replace the entity at the given URI. Per the HTTP spec, PUT is idempotent. Yes, it can be used to update, but thinking of only as update is not correct. – Cobos

i agree PUT is not update, it can be mapped with replace, because when you send PUT, it overrides the existing resource. But if we send PATCH, it will only replace specified entries. – Gusta

Because PUT can also be used to create, I'm not sure how your answer indicates which I should be using? – Lorin

This answer is much better, but doesn't compare with PATCH: https://mcmap.net/q/36058/-what-is-the-difference-between-post-and-put-in-http – Conveyance

This is not how you properly send a POST, please check: #7075625 – Hagiocracy

You should specify Content-Type in headers, and RequestBody is like this: title=foo&body=bar&userid=1000&id=1000 – Hagiocracy

you said, post should return 201 as status code, but i am checking your link for post, it returns the 200 – Keirakeiser

@SunilGarg: may be you didnt change the http verb to post . 200 is for get. – Leg

@Krishna, i have checked in the browesser, request type is post id response is of status 200 – Keirakeiser

@SunilGarg : oh okay, this is what i did.. i'm using postman by the way. In postman, go to File--> New. Select the http verb as Post in the dropdown, Request url as 'jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts' and in the body paste 'data: { title: 'foo', body: 'bar', userId: 1000, Id : 1000 }' and then click on Send. I see the body as '{ "id": 101 } and Status: 201Created.. Let me know if u are following the same steps. – Leg

I still don't get how PATCH behaves, because we can do a single update with PUT too – Scala

Answer 2

The below definition is from the real world example.

Example Overview
For every client data, we are storing an identifier to find that client data and we will send back that identifier to the client for reference.

1. POST

   • If the client sends data without any identifier, then we will store the data and assign/generate a new identifier.
   • If the client again sends the same data without any identifier, then we will store the data and assign/generate a new identifier.
   • Note: Duplication is allowed here.

2. PUT

   • If the client sends data with an identifier, then we will check whether that identifier exists. If the identifier exists, we will update the resource with the data, else we will create a resource with the data and assign/generate a new identifier.

3. PATCH

   • If the client sends data with an identifier, then we will check whether that identifier exists. If the identifier exists, we will update the resource with the data, else we will throw an exception.

Note: On the PUT method, we are not throwing an exception if an identifier is not found. But in the PATCH method, we are throwing an exception if the identifier is not found.

Do let me know if you have any queries on the above.

Herman

Great explanation, but if that is what PUT and POST mean, then RFC authors deserve a smack on their head. It feels like they wanted things to rhyme things starting with 'P'. – Goldston

Answer 3

Here is a simple description of all:

• POST is always for creating a resource ( does not matter if it was duplicated )
• PUT is for checking if resource exists then update, else create new resource
• PATCH is always for updating a resource

Cafeteria

This is not entirely accurate. 'The POST method requests that the target resource process the representation enclosed in the request according to the resource's own specific semantics' is what the rfc states. 'Appending data to a resource's existing representation' is one of the rfc's supplied examples. tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-4.3.3 – Anhinga

@Anhinga at what layer are those semantics/rfc defined? Is it a framework or language level config, or something specific to a particular part of the framework? Like, would node's POST/PUT/PATCH be different to ruby on rails' ? – Oloughlin

@Oloughlin Application / API. For example, you could design an API that accepts a POST to /delete, but doesn't necessarily have the result of creating a new resource (e.g. /deletions/{id}). – Anhinga

In other words: POST: Create a new resource and direct the client to its representation, whether that be returning the representation at the end of the request or via redirect. – Zenia

Answer 4

PUT = replace the ENTIRE RESOURCE with the new representation provided

PATCH = replace parts of the source resource with the values provided AND|OR other parts of the resource are updated that you havent provided (timestamps) AND|OR updating the resource effects other resources (relationships)

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/general-discussion/whats-the-differences-between-put-and-patch?page=1

Albacore

It seems like PUT means "update and overwrite". And seems like PATCH means "update and merge". I'm just trying to think of consistent and concise terms to describe what your answer nicely explains. – Paving

Answer 5

Simplest Explanation:

POST - Create NEW record

PUT - If the record exists, update else, create a new record

PATCH - update

GET - read

DELETE - delete

Dickenson

How is this substantially different from Kwame's answer posted about two weeks before yours? – Strahan

Answer 6

Think of it this way...

POST - create

PUT - replace

PATCH - update

GET - read

DELETE - delete

Floating

I'd probably add this distinction: "PUT if the client determines the resulting resource's address, POST if the server does it." – Strahan

Answer 7

Request Types

• create - POST
• read - GET
• create or update - PUT
• delete - DELETE
• update - PATCH

GET/PUT is idempotent PATCH can be sometimes idempotent

What is idempotent - It means if we fire the query multiple times it should not afftect the result of it.(same output.Suppose a cow is pregnant and if we breed it again then it cannot be pregnent multiple times)

get :-

simple get. Get the data from server and show it to user

{
id:1
name:parth
email:[email protected]
}

post :-

create new resource at Database. It means it adds new data. Its not idempotent.

put :-

Create new resource otherwise add to existing. Idempotent because it will update the same resource everytime and output will be the same. ex. - initial data

{
id:1
name:parth
email:[email protected]
}

• perform put-localhost/1 put email:[email protected]

{
id:1
email:[email protected]
}

patch

so now came patch request PATCH can be sometimes idempotent

id:1
name:parth
email:[email protected]
}

patch name:w

{
id:1
name:w
email:[email protected]
}

HTTP  Method
GET     yes
POST    no
PUT     yes
PATCH   no*
OPTIONS yes
HEAD    yes
DELETE  yes

Resources : Idempotent -- What is Idempotency?

Lierne

What does "sometimes" idempotent really means? What determines idempotency? – Excitor

"Sometimes idempotent" === Not idempotent - it either is or is not idempotent, there is no in-between. – Drollery

I can read in the comments that PUT changes the resource but the whole set of attributes has to be sent So how come is it that you can do "put email:[email protected]"??? Wasn't it supposed to be put { id:1 name:parth email:[email protected]} ?? – Assimilative

Answer 8

Main Difference Between PUT and PATCH Requests:

Suppose we have a resource that holds the first name and last name of a person.

If we want to change the first name then we send a put request for Update

{ "first": "Michael", "last": "Angelo" }

Here, although we are only changing the first name, with PUT request we have to send both parameters first and last.
In other words, it is mandatory to send all values again, the full payload.

When we send a PATCH request, however, we only send the data which we want to update. In other words, we only send the first name to update, no need to send the last name.

Charactery

Answer 9

Reference to RFC: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html#name-method-definitions

POST - creates new object
PUT - updates old object or creates new one if it does not exist
PATCH - updates/modifies old object. Primarily intended for modification.

There are a few interpretations of RFC, as mentioned before, but if you read carefully then you will notice that PUT and PATCH methods came after POST. POST was the common old-fashioned way to create native HTML Forms.

Therefore if you try to support all methods (like PATCH or DELETE), it can be suggested that the most appropriate way to use all methods is to stick to CRUD model:

Create - PUT
Read - GET
Update - PATCH
Delete - DELETE

Old HTML native way:
Read - GET
Create/Update/Delete - POST

Good Luck Coders! ;-)

Jabe

Answer 10

Quite logical the difference between PUT & PATCH w.r.t sending full & partial data for replacing/updating respectively. However, just couple of points as below

1. Sometimes POST is considered as for updates w.r.t PUT for create
2. Does HTTP mandates/checks for sending full vs partial data in PATCH? Otherwise, PATCH may be quite same as update as in PUT/POST

Evy

Answer 11

You may understand the restful HTTP methods as corresponding operations on the array in javascript (with index offset by 1).

See below examples:

Method	Url	Meaning
GET	/users	return users array
GET	/users/1	return users[1] object
POST	/users	users.push(body); return last id or index
PUT	/users	replace users array
PUT	/users/1	users[1] = body
PATCH	/users/1	users[1] = {...users[1], ...body }
DELETE	/users/1	delete users[1]

Elishaelision

Answer 12

PUT: The PUT method replaces all current representations of the target resource with the request payload.

Use it for updating items. For example; create address ABC, overriding it, if it already exists.

POST: The POST method submits an entity to the specified resource, often causing a change in state or side effects on the server.

Use it to create a new item. For example; create a new address.

PATCH: The PATCH method applies partial modifications to a resource.

Use it for updating items. For example; update the name on an address by providing the new name.

Other HTTP request methods

GET: The GET method requests a representation of the specified resource. Requests using GET should only retrieve data.

For example; get a single address.

DELETE: The DELETE method deletes the specified resource.

For example; delete address ABC from the database.

HEAD: The HEAD method asks for a response identical to a GET request, but without the response body.

CONNECT: The CONNECT method establishes a tunnel to the server identified by the target resource.

OPTIONS: The OPTIONS method describes the communication options for the target resource.

TRACE: The TRACE method performs a message loop-back test along the path to the target resource.

Devastating

Answer 13

In simple terms,

• POST is used to create a new resource in server.
• PUT is used to replace the existing resource in server.
• PATCH is used to update the existing resource in server.

We can configure which http methods the server should accept, if there is any discrepancies then the server will throw 405(Method Not Allowed) status code

Sight

Don't copy existing answers: stackoverflow.com/a/59697524 – Lillielilliputian