peek and element in Java's LinkedList

Question

What is the difference between peek and element in Java's LinkedList?

Here is what the Oracle Java Documentation Page describes them to be, but they do not explain the difference.

public E peek() Retrieves, but does not remove, the head (first element) of this list. Specified by: peek in interface Deque Specified by: peek in interface Queue Returns: the head of this list, or null if this list is empty Since: 1.5

public E element() Retrieves, but does not remove, the head (first element) of this list. Specified by: element in interface Deque Specified by: element in interface Queue Returns: the head of this list Throws: NoSuchElementException - if this list is empty Since: 1.5

Is the difference just that one throws and exception and another returns null in case our list is empty?

Thank you

Answer 1

Looking at the documentation of Queue , we find the following table:

Summary of Queue methods

	Throws Exception	Returns special value
Insert	add(e)	offer(e)
Remove	remove()	poll()
Examine	element()	peek()

So as we can see, the difference is that element() may throw a NoSuchElementException , while peek() does not.