What should I return for an HTTP PUT REST call that results in no changes?

Question

I have a resource that is created by POST, then can be updated via PUT.

If someone calls PUT and doesn't change anything, should it still return a 200 and look like the update has been performed (even though nothing was actually updated)?

Answer 1

In my opinion, 200 is fine. The request was OK and was processed the way it should. There is no semantic status code expressing an operation that did not result in any changes.