title: PATCH vs POST - Increment Counter
body: <p>Two questions regarding incrementing a single value in a Restful manner</p>
  
  <p>Let's say we have the following Table.</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class EmployeeStatistics   
  {      
      public int Id { get; set; }
      public int EmployeeId { get; set; }
      public int CallsMade { get; set; }
      public int CallsRecieved { get; set; }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Question #1</strong></p>
  
  <p>What would be the correct format to increment the <code>CallsMade</code> field?</p>
  
  <p>A: <code>api/EmployeeStatistics/AddCallMade/EmpId/{empId}</code></p>
  
  <p>B: <code>api/EmployeeStatistics/EmpId/{empId}/AddCallMade</code></p>
  
  <p><strong>Question #2</strong></p>
  
  <p>POST or PATCH?</p>
  
  <p>There are conflicting answers online regarding this question.</p>
  
  <p>While PATCH is used to replace specific values, I'm not looking to supply a payload containing the final value, rather I'd like to trigger a server side event that increments the specified value and returns status code <code>200</code> on completion.</p>
  
  <p>If my understanding is correct, incrementing a value is not idempotent as the result changes each time the operation is run. This leads me to believe POST would be the correct solution.</p>
  
  <p>All answers and opinions appreciated, thanks in advance.</p>