Creating Controllers — Complete Guide

Creating Controllers — Complete Guide: free step-by-step lesson with examples, common mistakes, and interview tips — part of ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial on Toolliyo Academy.

8 min read Updated 6/26/2026

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ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial · Lesson 32 of 200

Creating Controllers

Getting Started ✓ → Core MVC → Data & Security → Production → Career

Beginner · 3 — Controllers & Views · ~6 min · Section 3: Controllers

What is this?

A controller is a C# class that handles web requests. Each public method is an action — like Index for a list page or Details for one item.

Why should you care?

URLs map to controller actions. Without controllers, your server would not know what code to run for /Cart or /Checkout.

See it live — copy this example

Create an MVC project (dotnet new mvc), add the code, and run dotnet run.

public class ProductsController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    public IActionResult Details(int id)
    {
        ViewData["ProductId"] = id;
        return View();
    }
}

Run Example »

Edit the code and click Run — like W3Schools Try it Yourself.

Code

Result

What happened?

Controller base class gives you helpers like View() and RedirectToAction().
The name ProductsController maps to /Products/...
URLs by convention.

Try it yourself

Add ProductsController with Index and Details actions.
Create matching views under Views/Products/.
Browse to /Products/Details/42 and show id in the view.
Change text or labels in the example and run again — watch the browser update.
Break the code on purpose (remove a semicolon), read the error message, then fix it.

Remember

Controllers receive HTTP requests. Actions return IActionResult (usually View or Redirect). Class name minus "Controller" becomes the URL segment.

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