If you want to return a reference to an array from a function, the declaration would look like this:
// an array
int global[10];
// function returning a reference to an array
int (&f())[10] {
return global;
}
The declaration of a function returning a reference to an array looks the same as the declaration of a variable that is a reference to an array – only that the function name is followed by ()
, which may contain parameter declarations:
int (&variable)[1][2];
int (&functionA())[1][2];
int (&functionB(int param))[1][2];
Such declarations can be made much clearer by using a typedef:
typedef int array_t[10];
array_t& f() {
return global;
}
If you want it to get really confusing, you can declare a function that takes a reference to an array and also returns such a reference:
template<int N, int M>
int (&f(int (¶m)[M][N]))[M][N] {
return param;
}
Pointers to arrays work the same, only that they use *
instead of &
.