return pointer to data declared in function

Question

I know this won\'T work because the variable x gets destroyed when the function returns:

int* myFunction()
{
    int x = 4; return &x;
}

<

Answer 1

I would try something like this:

int myFunction2b( int * px )
{
  if( px )
  {
    *px = 4;
    return 1;
  }

  // Choice 1: Assert or Report Error
  // Choice 2: Allocate memory for x. Caller has to be written accordingly.

  // My choice is 1
  assert( 0 && "Argument is NULL pointer" );
  return 0;

}