Returning pointer from a function

Question

I am trying to return pointer from a function. But I am getting segmentation fault. Someone please tell what is wrong with the code

#include<stdio.h>
int *fun();
main()
{
    int *ptr;
    ptr=fun();
    printf("%d",*ptr);

}
int *fun()
{
    int *point;
    *point=12;  
    return point;
}   

Answer 1

Allocate memory before using the pointer. If you don't allocate memory *point = 12 is undefined behavior.

int *fun()
{
    int *point = malloc(sizeof *point); /* Mandatory. */
    *point=12;  
    return point;
}

Also your printf is wrong. You need to dereference ( * ) the pointer.

printf("%d", *ptr);
             ^

Answer 2

Although returning a pointer to a local object is bad practice, it didn't cause the kaboom here. Here's why you got a segfault:

int *fun()
{
    int *point;
    *point=12;  <<<<<<  your program crashed here.
    return point;
}

The local pointer goes out of scope, but the real issue is dereferencing a pointer that was never initialized. What is the value of point? Who knows. If the value did not map to a valid memory location, you will get a SEGFAULT. If by luck it mapped to something valid, then you just corrupted memory by overwriting that place with your assignment to 12.

Since the pointer returned was immediately used, in this case you could get away with returning a local pointer. However, it is bad practice because if that pointer was reused after another function call reused that memory in the stack, the behavior of the program would be undefined.

int *fun()
{
    int point;
    point = 12;
    return (&point);
}

or almost identically:

int *fun()
{
    int point;
    int *point_ptr;
    point_ptr = &point;
    *point_ptr = 12;
    return (point_ptr);
}

Another bad practice but safer method would be to declare the integer value as a static variable, and it would then not be on the stack and would be safe from being used by another function:

int *fun()
{
    static int point;
    int *point_ptr;
    point_ptr = &point;
    *point_ptr = 12;
    return (point_ptr);
}

or

int *fun()
{
    static int point;
    point = 12;
    return (&point);
}

As others have mentioned, the "right" way to do this would be to allocate memory on the heap, via malloc.

Answer 3

It is not allocating memory at assignment of value 12 to integer pointer. Therefore it crashes, because it's not finding any memory.

You can try this:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
int *fun();

int main()
{
    int *ptr;
    ptr=fun();
    printf("\n\t\t%d\n",*ptr);
}

int *fun()
{
    int ptr;
    ptr=12;
    return(&ptr);
}

Answer 4

To my knowledge the use of the keyword new, does relatively the same thing as malloc(sizeof identifier). The code below demonstrates how to use the keyword new.

    void main(void){
        int* test;
        test = tester();
        printf("%d",*test);
        system("pause");
    return;
}
    int* tester(void){
        int *retMe;
        retMe = new int;//<----Here retMe is getting malloc for integer type
        *retMe = 12;<---- Initializes retMe... Note * dereferences retMe 
    return retMe;
}