Explain the concept of a function returning a pointer in C with an example 6m Jun2007
Function returning a pointer in C
A function can also return a pointer to the calling program, the way it returns an int, a float or any other data type. To return a pointer, a function must explicitly mention in the calling program as well as in the function prototype. Let’s illustrate this with an example:
Example:
Write a program to illustrate a function returning a pointer.
/*Program that shows how a function returns a pointer */
# include<stdio.h>
void main( )
{
float *a;
float *func( ); /* function prototype */
a = func( );
printf (“Address = %u”, a);
}
float *func( )
{
float r = 5.2;
return (&r);
}
OUTPUT
Address = 65516
This program only shows how a function can return a pointer. This concept will be used while handling arrays.