Elixir — Differences between hd and List.first

A tip to BOOST your elixir coding…

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To boost up your Elixir coding, you need to understand a few differences between these two even though they are used for the same purpose.

hd ( vs ) List.first [ diff…]

We all knew that hd & List.first are used to pick out the first element in a list . But, why two functions for the same purpose?
However, they differ slightly in dealing with the empty list [] and in guard tests.

Differences

1. on Empty lists
   The function hd on empty list [] results in Argument Error
   The function List.first on empty list [] results in nil
2. on guard tests
   The function hd is allowed in guard tests. In lined by the compiler.
   The function List.firstis not allowed in guard tests.

Lets check this in live…

Elixir - List.first (VS) hd function over Empty Lists and Guard tests.

Hope now you got some idea and understood where and when to use them.