Return array in a function

Question

I have an array int arr[5] that is passed to a function fillarr(int arr[]):

int fillarr(int arr[])
{
    for(...);
    return arr;
}

1. How can I return that array?
2. How will I use it, say I returned a pointer how am I going to access it?

Answer 1

This:

int fillarr(int arr[])

is actually treated the same as:

int fillarr(int *arr)

Now if you really want to return an array you can change that line to

int * fillarr(int arr[]){
    // do something to arr
    return arr;
}

It's not really returning an array. you're returning a pointer to the start of the array address.

But remember when you pass in the array, you're only passing in a pointer. So when you modify the array data, you're actually modifying the data that the pointer is pointing at. Therefore before you passed in the array, you must realise that you already have on the outside the modified result.

e.g.

int fillarr(int arr[]){
   array[0] = 10;
   array[1] = 5;
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[]){
   int arr[] = { 1,2,3,4,5 };

   // arr[0] == 1
   // arr[1] == 2 etc
   int result = fillarr(arr);
   // arr[0] == 10
   // arr[1] == 5    
   return 0;
}

I suggest you might want to consider putting a length into your fillarr function like this.

int * fillarr(int arr[], int length)

That way you can use length to fill the array to it's length no matter what it is.

To actually use it properly. Do something like this:

int * fillarr(int arr[], int length){
   for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i){
      // arr[i] = ? // do what you want to do here
   }
   return arr;
}

// then where you want to use it.
int arr[5];
int *arr2;

arr2 = fillarr(arr, 5);

// at this point, arr & arr2 are basically the same, just slightly
// different types.  You can cast arr to a (char*) and it'll be the same.

If all you're wanting to do is set the array to some default values, consider using the built in memset function.

something like: memset((int*)&arr, 5, sizeof(int));

While I'm on the topic though. You say you're using C++. Have a look at using stl vectors. Your code is likely to be more robust.

There are lots of tutorials. Here is one that gives you an idea of how to use them. http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialC++STL.html

Answer 2

to return an array from a function , let us define that array in a structure; So it looks something like this

struct Marks{
   int list[5];
}

Now let us create variables of the type structure.

typedef struct Marks marks;
marks marks_list;

We can pass array to a function in the following way and assign value to it:

void setMarks(int marks_array[]){
   for(int i=0;i<sizeof(marks_array)/sizeof(int);i++)
       marks_list.list[i]=marks_array[i];
}

We can also return the array. To return the array , the return type of the function should be of structure type ie marks. This is because in reality we are passing the structure that contains the array. So the final code may look like this.

marks getMarks(){
 return marks_list;
}

Answer 3

In C++11, you can return std::array.

#include <array>
using namespace std;

array<int, 5> fillarr(int arr[])
{
    array<int, 5> arr2;
    for(int i=0; i<5; ++i) {
        arr2[i]=arr[i]*2;
    }
    return arr2;
}

Answer 4

the Simplest way to do this ,is to return it by reference , even if you don't write the '&' symbol , it is automatically returned by reference

     void fillarr(int arr[5])
  {
       for(...);

  }

Answer 5

and what about:

int (*func())
{
    int *f = new int[10] {1,2,3};

    return f;
}

int fa[10] = { 0 };
auto func2() -> int (*) [10]
{
    return &fa;
}

Answer 6

In this case, your array variable arr can actually also be treated as a pointer to the beginning of your array's block in memory, by an implicit conversion. This syntax that you're using:

int fillarr(int arr[])

Is kind of just syntactic sugar. You could really replace it with this and it would still work:

int fillarr(int* arr)

So in the same sense, what you want to return from your function is actually a pointer to the first element in the array:

int* fillarr(int arr[])

And you'll still be able to use it just like you would a normal array:

int main()
{
  int y[10];
  int *a = fillarr(y);
  cout << a[0] << endl;
}