C++ correct way to return pointer to array from function

Question

I am fairly new to C++ and have been avoiding pointers. From what I\'ve read online I cannot return an array but I can return a pointer to it. I made a small code to test it

Answer 1

In a real app, the way you returned the array is called using an out parameter. Of course you don't actually have to return a pointer to the array, because the caller already has it, you just need to fill in the array. It's also common to pass another argument specifying the size of the array so as to not overflow it.

Using an out parameter has the disadvantage that the caller may not know how large the array needs to be to store the result. In that case, you can return a std::vector or similar array class instance.