Thread: Merge two sorted arrays recursively

Hi, the exercise is this:
I got two sorted arrays (of any length) and I got to merge them into a new array (of correct length, and still sorted), recursively.

I solved the problem like this:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void merge(int *v1, int *v2, int l1, int l2, int *v3);
int *newArray(int n);

int main (void) {
    int *v1, *v2, *v3;
    int i, l1, l2, l3;

    v1 = v2 = v3 = NULL;

    printf("Enter the numbers in increasing order.\n\n");

    printf("First's array length: ");
    do{
        scanf("%d", &l1);
    }while(l1 <= 0);

    v1 = newArray(l1);

    printf("\nSecond's array length: ");
    do{
        scanf("%d", &l2);
    }while(l2 <= 0);

    v2 = newArray(l2);

    l3 = l1 + l2;

    v3 = malloc(l3 * sizeof(int));
    if(!v3)
        return -1;

    merge(v1, v2, l1, l2, v3);

    printf("\nResult:\n");
    for(i=0; i<l3; ++i)
        printf("%d ", v3[i]);

    return 0;
}

void merge(int *v1, int *v2, int l1, int l2, int *v3){
    if(l1 && l2){ // verifying if both vectors got elements
        if(*v1 <= *v2){
            *v3 = *v1;
            merge(++v1, v2, --l1, l2, ++v3);
        }
        else{
            *v3 = *v2;
            merge(v1, ++v2, l1, --l2, ++v3); // notare ++v2 e --l2 e ++v3
        }
    }

    else if(l1){ // verifying if only v1 got elements
        *v3 = *v1;
        merge(++v1, v2, --l1, l2, ++v3);
    }

    else if(l2){ // verifying if only v2 got elements
        *v3 = *v2;
        merge(v1, ++v2, l1, --l2, ++v3);
    }
}

int *newArray(int n){
    int *v = NULL;
    int i;

    v = malloc(n * sizeof(int));

    if(!v)
        return NULL;

    for(i=0; i<n; ++i){
        printf("[%d]: ", i);
        scanf("%d", &v[i]);
    }

    return v;
}

My solution seems to work well. I only got a doubt about how I solved it, it is: is there a way to make it in the form "v3 = merge(parameters);" ?
I would like to know if I can do it with returns... it would be a non-void function.

Thanks