Extension of HttpEntity that adds an HttpStatusCode status code. Used in RestTemplate as well as in @Controller methods.

In RestTemplate, this class is returned by getForEntity() and exchange():

ResponseEntity<String> entity = template.getForEntity("https://example.com", String.class);
String body = entity.getBody();
MediaType contentType = entity.getHeaders().getContentType();
HttpStatus statusCode = entity.getStatusCode();

This can also be used in Spring MVC as the return value from an @Controller method:

@RequestMapping("/handle")
public ResponseEntity<String> handle() {
  URI location = ...;
  HttpHeaders responseHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
  responseHeaders.setLocation(location);
  responseHeaders.set("MyResponseHeader", "MyValue");
  return new ResponseEntity<String>("Hello World", responseHeaders, HttpStatus.CREATED);
}

Or, by using a builder accessible via static methods:

@RequestMapping("/handle")
public ResponseEntity<String> handle() {
  URI location = ...;
  return ResponseEntity.created(location).header("MyResponseHeader", "MyValue").body("Hello World");
}