{"id":1976,"date":"2021-06-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kindsonthegenius.com\/blog\/how-to-create-rest-api-in-net-using-c-and-visual-studio\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T03:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T01:25:37","slug":"how-to-create-rest-api-in-net-using-c-and-visual-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kindsonthegenius.com\/blog\/how-to-create-rest-api-in-net-using-c-and-visual-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create REST API in .Net Using C# and Visual Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this tutorial and subsequent ones, you will learn how to create a .NET REST API in C# using Visual Studio. In this first part, we would create a REST API that returns a list of friends.<\/p>\n

Next we would add the endpoints for INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE.<\/p>\n

Finally, we would generate the UI (Razor) pages using Visual Studio very easily.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Setup the Project<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Create the Model and Controller<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Making a GET Request<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Making a POST Request<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. PUT Request<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Delete Request<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Next Steps<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    1. Setup the Project and Create the Model<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    Start a new project in Visual Studio<\/p>\n

    In the Project template window, choose ASP.Net Core Web Application as shown below:<\/p>\n

    \"Choose<\/a>
    Choose ASP.Net Core Web Application<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Give the project a name. I call it APITutorial.<\/p>\n

    Click on Ok.<\/p>\n

    In the next window, choose API as shown below:<\/p>\n

    \"Choose<\/a>
    Choose API<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Click on OK<\/p>\n

    Now, the project sets up. Then open the ValuesController.cs file which is inside the Controllers folder.\u00a0 You will see that a basic REST controller is set up with placeholders for GET, POST, PUT and DELETE.<\/p>\n

    If you run the applications, you can visit the route https:\/\/localhost:44385\/api\/values. It returns a response:\u00a0 [“value1”, “value2”]<\/p>\n

    So we now want to write the function that returns a list of friend.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    2. Create the Model and Controller<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    First create a class called Friend. This class would have four fields: firstname, lastname, location and dateOfHire.<\/p>\n

    This class is shown below:<\/p>\n

        public<\/span> class<\/span> Friend<\/span>\r\n    {\r\n        private<\/span> string<\/span> firstname { get<\/span>; set<\/span>; }\r\n        private<\/span> string<\/span> lastname { get<\/span>; set<\/span>; }\r\n        private<\/span> string<\/span> location { get<\/span>; set<\/span>; }\r\n        private<\/span> DateTime dateOfHire { get<\/span>; set<\/span>; }\r\n\r\n        public<\/span> Friend<\/span>()\r\n        {\r\n        }\r\n\r\n        public<\/span> Friend<\/span>(string<\/span> firstname, string<\/span> lastname, string<\/span> location, DateTime dateOfHire)\r\n        {\r\n            this<\/span>.firstname = firstname;\r\n            this<\/span>.lastname = lastname;\r\n            this<\/span>.location = location;\r\n            this<\/span>.dateOfHire = dateOfHire;\r\n        }\r\n    }\r\n<\/pre>\n
     <\/p>\n
    We then need to create the controller class inside the controllers folder.<\/p>\n
    Right-click on the controller folder and choose Add New Controller.<\/p>\n
    Choose API Controller in the Add Scaffold window as shown below:<\/p>\n
    \"Creating<\/a>
    Creating a REST API Controller<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    Click on Add.<\/p>\n
    In the next window, give it a name FriendController<\/p>\n
    Then ok.<\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
    3. Making a GET Request<\/strong><\/h4>\n
    You’ll see that the controller file is generated with some content. Adjust the code in the get section to the following:
    \n<\/p>\n
    \/\/ GET: api\/Friend<\/span>\r\n[HttpGet]<\/span>\r\npublic<\/span> List<Friend> Get()\r\n{\r\n    List<Friend> friends = new<\/span> List<Friend>();\r\n    friends.Add(new<\/span> Friend(\"Kindson\"<\/span>, \"Munonye\"<\/span>, \"Budapest\"<\/span>, DateTime.Today));\r\n    friends.Add(new<\/span> Friend(\"Oleander\"<\/span>, \"Yuba\"<\/span>, \"Nigeria\"<\/span>, DateTime.Today));\r\n    friends.Add(new<\/span> Friend(\"Saffron\"<\/span>, \"Lawrence\"<\/span>, \"Lagos\"<\/span>, DateTime.Today));\r\n    friends.Add(new<\/span> Friend(\"Jadon\"<\/span>, \"Munonye\"<\/span>, \"Asaba\"<\/span>, DateTime.Today));\r\n    friends.Add(new<\/span> Friend(\"Solace\"<\/span>, \"Okeke\"<\/span>, \"Oko\"<\/span>, DateTime.Today));\r\n\r\n    return<\/span> friends;\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
    Now you can run the application and access \/api\/friend<\/p>\n
    In the case of findById, use the code below:
    \n<\/p>\n
    \/\/ GET: api\/Friend\/5<\/span>\r\n[HttpGet(\"{id}\", Name = \"Get\")]<\/span>\r\npublic<\/span> Friend Get<\/span>(int<\/span> id)\r\n{\r\n    Friend friend = friends.Find(f => f.id == id);\r\n    return<\/span> friend;\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
     <\/p>\n
    4. Making a POST Request<\/strong><\/h4>\n
    To make POST request, we need to modify the POST section of the controller file.<\/p>\n
    Since we are not using database yet, we would simply add the received friend object to the list and return the new list. The code is given below:<\/p>\n
    \/\/ POST: api\/Friend<\/span>\r\n[HttpPost]<\/span>\r\npublic<\/span> List<Friend> Post([FromBody] Friend friend)\r\n{\r\n    friends.Add(friend);\r\n    return<\/span> friends;\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
    You can test is to see. You can use either Postman or Advanced Rest Client(ARC).<\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
    5. PUT Request<\/strong><\/h4>\n
    Here, we would receive a friend object from the body of the PUT request. We’ll also receive the id in the URL.\u00a0 Then we’ll do the following:<\/p>\n