Usages of Null / Nothing / Unit in Scala

Question

I\'ve just read: http://oldfashionedsoftware.com/2008/08/20/a-post-about-nothing/

As far as I understand, Null is a trait and its only instance is

Answer 1

Nothing is often used implicitly. In the code below, val b: Boolean = if (1 > 2) false else throw new RuntimeException("error") the else clause is of type Nothing, which is a subclass of Boolean (as well as any other AnyVal). Thus, the whole assignment is valid to the compiler, although the else clause does not really return anything.