How Do I Pass and Return Arrays in Functions?

Passing and Returning Arrays in Functions

When passing an array to a function as an argument, it can be treated implicitly as a pointer to the beginning of the array's memory block. This means that the function can directly access and manipulate the array's elements. However, when attempting to return an array from a function, a different approach is necessary.

Returning an Array

To return an array from a function, you actually return a pointer to the first element of the array. Here's an example:

int* fillArr(int arr[]) {
    // Do some operations on the array
    return arr;  // Returns a pointer to the first element of arr
}

Using the Returned Array

After you return a pointer to the array, you can use it in your code just like a normal array. For instance:

int main() {
    int y[10];
    int *a = fillArr(y);  // Call the function and store the returned pointer
    cout <p>In this example, the fillArr function returns a pointer to the first element of the y array, which is stored in the a pointer. You can then access the elements of the array through this pointer.</p><p><strong>Implicit Conversion from Array to Pointer</strong></p><p>It's worth noting that in the above examples, we have used the following syntax for the function argument:</p><pre class="brush:php;toolbar:false">int* fillArr(int arr[])

However, this is functionally equivalent to:

int* fillArr(int *arr)

This is because an array variable can be implicitly converted to a pointer to its first element. Therefore, you can pass and return arrays using either syntax.

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