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## C++ Returning Pointers from Functions C++ allows you to return a pointer from a function. To do this, you must declare a function that returns a pointer, as shown below: int * myFunction() { . . . } Another point to note is that C++ does not support returning the address of a local variable outside the function unless the local variable is declared as a **static** variable. Now, let's look at the following function, which will generate 10 random numbers and return them using an array name representing a pointer, which is the address of the first array element. #include #include #include using namespace std; // Function declaration to generate and return random numbers int * getRandom( ) { static int r; // Set the seed srand( (unsigned)time( NULL ) ); for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) { r = rand(); cout << r << endl; } return r; } // Main function to call the above-defined function int main () { // A pointer to an integer int *p; p = getRandom(); for ( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ ) { cout << "*(p + " << i << ") : "; cout << *(p + i) << endl; } return 0; } When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces results similar to the following: 624723190 1468735695 807113585 976495677 613357504 1377296355 1530315259 1778906708 1820354158 667126415 *(p + 0) : 624723190 *(p +132) : 1468735695 *(p + 2) : 807113585 *(p + 3) : 976495677 *(p + 4) : 613357504 *(p + 5) : 1377296355 *(p + 6) : 1530315259 *(p + 7) : 1778906708 *(p + 8) : 1820354158 *(p + 9) : 667126415