C++ Returning Array from a Function

In C++, we can return a pointer to the base address(address of first element of array) of array from a function like any basic data type. However, C++ programming language does not allow to return whole array from a function.

We should not return base pointer of a local array declared inside a function because as soon as control returns from a function all local variables gets destroyed. If we want to return a local array then we should declare it as a static variable so that it retains it's value after function call.

Declaration of a Function Returning Integer Array

int* getScoreList();

Above function returns the base address of an integer array.

C++ Program for Returning Array from a Function

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
 
// This function returns an array of N even numbers
int* getEvenNumbers(int N){
    // Declaration of a static local integer array
    static int evenNumberArray[100];
    int i, even = 2;
     
    for(i=0; i<N; i++){
        evenNumberArray[i] = even;
        even += 2;
    }
    // Returning base address of evenNumberArray array
    return evenNumberArray;
}
 
int main(){
   int *array, counter;
   array = getEvenNumbers(10);
   cout << "Even Numbers\n";
   for(counter=0; counter<10; counter++){
       cout << array[counter] << " ";
   }
    
   return 0;
}

Output

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Similarly, you can return multi dimentional arrays from a function.

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