What is the difference between getFirst() and peekFirst() in Java's LinkedList?

java, linked-list

Solution

Java introduced `LinkedList` in version 1.2. This is when the `getFirst` method has been provided. This message threw `NoSuchElementException` when the list is empty, causing programmers to do an extra check before the call:

Element e = null;
if (!myList.isEmpty()) {
     e = myList.getFirst();
}

This was an inconvenience, which has been fixed in Java version 1.6 by adding the `peekFirst` method and other methods of the `Dequeue<T>` interface.

Problem

In Java's LinkedList implementation, I see two methods which seems to me like having identical functions. `getFirst()` --Returns the first element in this list. `peekFirst()` --Retrieves, but does not remove, the first element of this list, or returns null if this list is empty. Both of them get the pointer to the First element in the LinkedList without making any changes to it. Then, what's the difference ? The only difference I see is that `peekFirst` returns `null` if the list is empty and `getFirst` throws a `NoSuchElementException` if the list is empty. What was the use of such a design pattern ?

Original source