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kotlinlang

Question: why is `emptyList()` a generic function that returns a `List&lt;T&gt;`, instead of a non-generic function that returns a `List&lt;Nothing&gt;`? (Or even a constant or object?)

So you can do `val list = emptyList&lt;String&gt;()`

And also probably for consistency with the other list factory functions

Although if it did return `List&lt;Nothing&gt;` and you did `val list = emptyList()` you’d still be able to pass `list` anywhere that expected a `List&lt;String&gt;` .

But static overloads would mess things up.

First, we prefer `Nothing` being explicitly mentioned in type arguments.
Second, if we had `emptyList` without generic parameters, it would be inconsistent with `emptyMap` that cannot declare its return type so that it could be assignable to any `Map` type parametrization due to its `K` type parameter being invariant.

And it does return a static object of type `List&lt;Nothing&gt;` under the hood.

Yes, but the “nothingness” isn’t exposed at the API, which means you sometimes have to add an explicit generic type parameter to please the type inference, when actually it doesn’t need the parameter because it is is ignored under the hood.