Difference between render_template and redirect?

Question

return redirect(url_for('index', var=var)) return render_template('index.html', var=var) 

Are these two lines essentially the same thing?

What is the difference between the two functions?

Answer 1

redirect returns a 302 header to the browser, with its Location header as the URL for the index function. render_template returns a 200, with the index.html template returned as the content at that URL.

Answer 2

On a much simpler note, consider this - If none of your endpoints rendered templates, and all your redirects were to url's of endpoints within your app, there would be nothing to render!

It's like pointing the way to a place that won't show itself.