Returning a non temporary arrary from function

Hello,

I have a function that takes two array parameters and returns a new character array based on the concatenation of the first parameter with the second parameter at the end.

This function works (given below):

//this function takes two character arrays, concats them and returns a new returnable char array
char * conCatNew(char f[], char s[])
{
//create the temporary array
char temp[250];

//copy the first argument then concat the second argument to the temp array
strcpy(temp, f);
strcat(temp, s);

//return the temp array to the invocation
return temp;

} //end conCatNew function

However, my compiler VS .net is giving me a warning:

dig2.cpp(178) : warning C4172: returning address of local variable or temporary

I would like to make the temp arrary a permanent return to be used from the place of invocation without this warning.

Do I need to do a reference return? I do not know how to do this with an array.

Note that char temp[250]; gets destroyed after the function exits. You should rather give the new buffer as an argument to the function:
void conCatNew(char f[], char s[], char *newstring)

Thanks. That is a helpful alternative.

However, here is my function invocation for conCatNew.

long sHand = _findfirst(conCatNew(curDirArg, "\\*.*"), &fileStruct);

I need to use it in the _findfirst function. Info for this function is located at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ndfirsti64.asp

As you can see, I need to use the returned value as an argument for another function.

Thanks again.

If you pass it to another function, you cannot know if it gets destroyed or not. Then you would use char *temp=(char *)malloc(200);
But you can just create a temporary buffer outside the function and give that as an argument.

Try this.

//this function takes two character arrays, concats them and returns a new returnable char array
char * conCatNew(char f[], char s[])
{
//create the temporary array
char *temp;

temp = new char[250];
//copy the first argument then concat the second argument to the temp array
strcpy(temp, f);
strcat(temp, s);

//return the temp array to the invocation
return temp;

} //end conCatNew function