C++: Can a function return two values?

You cannot return two values in C++. Instead, you can return a pointer to an array, or alternatively change the parameters using references. Alternative 1: int* search (int a[], int size, int target) { int* result = new int[2]; //your code result[0] = firstIndex; result[1] = secondIndex; return result; } Alternative 2: void search(int a[], int size, int target, int &firstIndex, int &secondIndex) { //your code firstIndex = index; //your code secondIndex = index; } If you have additional questions let me know.

You can return an array of 2 elements or a struct location { int firstIndex; int lastIndex;}. You can also use reference and pass in firstIndex and lastIndex as reference then modify their values inside you function and they value will be preserved after the function execution.

No. There are a gajillion ways to get the extra value back out of the function. You could put it in a global variable, or a data location for which the reference gets passed into the function, or even cram two 32-bit integers into a single 64-bit integer if you're feeling especially hacky today. However, you are guaranteed that on any given call to a function, no more than one return statement will be executed, and it will return a single value of the specified type.

I agree with the answer posted by 'husoski'.

There are a couple of ways to do this. 1) return a struct that contains both numbers as public (by default for a struct) fields. struct search_result { int first, last; }; search_result search(...etc.) { search_result result = {-1,-1}; ...etc. storing match index values in result.first and result.last, and finally return result; } Then call with: search_result sr = search(...etc.); if (sr.first == -1) { ... not found ... } 2) Same idea as above, but use the pair<> class from #include <utility>: pair<int,int> search(...etc.) { int first=-1, last=-1; ...do your search, storing index values in first and last return pair<int,int>(first,last); } ...then call with: pair<int,int> sr = search(...etc.); if (sr.first == -1) {...not found...} if (sr.first == sr.second) {...only one match found...} Note that the pair<> fields are first and second, not first and last. 3) Use a pointer or reference argument to return the last index. int search(int a[], int size, int target, int &last) { int first=-1; last = -1; ... do your search, setting first and last return first; } Then call with int last; int first=search(a, 10, 9, last); I omitted prototypes, and didn't retype or paste your code, but I hope you get the ideas involved. Like the Perl folks' motto says: There Is More Than One Way To Do It.