I've searched around and haven't really found a clear answer as to when you'd want to use .First and when you'd want to use .FirstOrDefault with LINQ.

• When would you want to use .First? Only when you'd want to catch the exception if no results where returned?

  var result = List.Where(x => x == "foo").First();
  

• And when would you want to use .FirstOrDefault? When you'd always want the default type if no result?

  var result = List.Where(x => x == "foo").FirstOrDefault();
  

• And for that matter, what about Take?

  var result = List.Where(x => x == "foo").Take(1);