Return an array in c++

Question

Suppose I have an array

int arr[] = {...};
arr = function(arr);

I have the function as

 int& function(int arr[])
 {
//         


        

Answer 1

As others said, there are better options like STL containers and the most interesting question is why you need to return the array to a function that already has it in scope.

That being said, you can't pass or return arrays by value and need to avoid the array decaying to a pointer (see e.g. here), either by using pointers or references to it:

int (&f(int (&arr)[3]))[3]
{
    return arr;
}

If you don't want to hard-code the size, you can use template functions:

template
int (&f(int (&arr)[n]))[n]
{
    return arr;
}