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What is the Never return type?

Swift version: 5.6

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

The Never return type is a special one in Swift, and tells the compiler that execution will never return when this function is called. It’s used by Swift’s fatalError() and preconditionFailure() functions, both of which cause your app to crash if they are called.

The Never return type is useful because it lets Swift waive other requirements. For example, if you’re in a function that must return a value, calling a Never function means you don’t need to return anything – Swift knows you can’t return a value any more.

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This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.

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