Can you explain what the Nothing type means in programming language?

In programming languages such as Kotlin, the Nothing type denotes a type that has no values. This means that a function or expression with the Nothing type never returns normally — for example, they may terminate with an exception or an infinite loop.

Example of usage:

fun fail(message: String): Nothing {
    throw IllegalArgumentException(message)
}

Here, the fail function never returns a value; it always throws an exception. The Nothing type helps the compiler understand that after calling such a function, the code will not continue, which improves code analysis and safety.