correct way to return two dimensional array from a function c

Question

I have tried this but it won\'t work:

#include 

    int * retArr()
    {
    int a[3][3] = {{1,2,3},{4,5,6},{7,8,9}};
    return a;
    }

           


        

Answer 1

For this:

int * retArr() {
    int a[3][3] = {{1,2,3},{4,5,6},{7,8,9}};
    return a;
}

The array has local scope and is destroyed as soon as you exit the function. This means that return a; actually returns a dangling pointer.

To fix this, put the array in global scope, or use malloc() and copy the array into the allocated space.