Question

How do I pass back a local variable from a function to main, if said function already has a return value? Sorry for the question, I’m trying to make it as objective as possible for everyone, not just my case.

Specifically: I have a function called subtotal. There are two counting variables. One of them I returned with a return. The other I need to make available for use by my main() function.

edit: To clarify:

function something() {
   float counter = 0.0;
   int someOtherVar = 0;

   // the work

   return someOtherVar;
}

What I want to do is pass the counter float to main.

Answer 1

Pass a pointer to the extra return value as a parameter to the function.

int foo(int *anotherOutParam)
{
    *anotherOutParam = 1;
    return 2;
}

And to call it:

int ret1, ret2;
ret1 = foo(&ret2);
//do something with ret2

Oftentimes, @Mat’s suggestion of packing all the return values into a struct is preferable.