Should a HttpResponse's status_code attribute be an integer or a string?

Question

When I am creating a HttpResponse object, should I pass it a integer for the status_code attribute, or a string? I.e. HttpResponse('401 Client Error', status=401) vs. HttpResponse('401 Client Error', status="401")

The documentation is a generic descriptor, that doesn't give the type.

HttpResponse.status_code

The HTTP status code for the response.

Answer 1

You should always pass an integer.

HttpResponse('401 Client Error', status=401)

As per the HTTP protocol:

The Status-Code element is a 3-digit integer result code of the attempt to understand and satisfy the request.

Answer 2

An integer, because the default value listed in the documentation is an integer. I.e. 200, instead of "200".

Building from Rahul Gupta's answer, an integer also because quote HTTP protocol,

The Status-Code element is a 3-digit integer result code of the attempt to understand and satisfy the request.

and because headers and metadata may be either strings or integers