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Kushal sharma
Kushal sharma

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What are HTTP headers in a REST API?

In a REST API, HTTP headers are often used to provide information about the request or response, such as the format of the data being sent or received and the type of authentication being used.

A request header is a key-value pair that provides information about the request context so that the server can tailor the response.

Some commonly used request headers are:

Content-Type: This header specifies the format of the request or response body, such as application/json for JSON data or application/xml for XML data.

Accept: This header specifies the format of the data that the client is willing to receive in the response.

Authorization: This header is used to provide authentication credentials, such as an API key or a token. The specific format of the credentials will depend on the authentication scheme being used.

Cache-Control: This header is used to specify caching behavior for the response, such as whether the response can be cached and for how long.

Content-Length: This header indicates the number of bytes contained in the request or body.

So, one full example of request headers while sending the request looks like this:

Content-Type: application/json
Accept application/json, application/xml
Authorization: Bearer YourAccessToken123
Cache-Control: max-age=86400
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The above request headers tell the server that it's sending JSON data prefers JSON but can also accept XML, uses an access token for authorization, and allows caching the response for up to one day.

I hope you like this article and have understood the use of HTTP headers. If you enjoyed it, please like, comment, and follow for more cool stuff.

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