General rules of passing/returning reference of array (not pointer) to/from a function?

Question

We can pass reference of an array to a function like:

void f(int (&a)[5]);

int x[5];
f(x);     //okay
int y[6];
f(y);     //error - type of y is not `in         


        

Answer 1

You cannot return an array from a function.

8.3.5/6:

Functions shall not have a return type of type array or function, although they may have a return type of type pointer or reference to such things.

EDIT: You'll love the syntax:

int (&bar()) [5] {
  static int x[5];
  return x;
}


int (* & bar()) [6][10] {
    static int x[6][10];
    static int (*y)[6][10] = &x;
    return y;
}
// Note - this returns a reference to a pointer to a 2d array, not exactly what you wanted.