Storing a number of integers into array and printing them out - c++

Question

How do I make a function with for loop to store a given range of numbers into an array, then call that function in main program and print out the stored elements inside of the array?
int main ()
{
testing(array, 20);
}
int testing(int array[], int k)
{
for (int i = 0; k < 20; i++)
{
array[k] = i;
k++;
}
for (int j = 0; j < 20; j++)
{
cout << array[j] << endl;
}
}
I get the error of, "testing has to return value", which I understand that I should of have return var; for example. However, I don't know how to return an array of given elements to print out all the elements with a for loop.

Answer 1

Your function and loop constructions are not carefully designed. You can use pointers instead of having to return an array.
I think this is what you are trying to do:
#include <iostream>
void testing(int* a, int k)
{
for (int i = 0; i < k; i++)
a[i] = i;
}
int main()
{
int a[20];
testing(a, 20);
// you can see that a's elements have changed outside the main (in testing)
for (int j = 0; j < 20; j++)
std::cout << a[j] << "\n";
return 0;
}

Answer 2

You don’t seem to ever execute the first loop. Your stop condition for your first loop is k < 20, but k already is 20.
Then on the second loop, the array just prints out the garbage that was previously saved at those memory locations.
I think what you meant to do was:
for (int i= 0; i < k; i++) {
array[i] = i;
}
for (int j = 0; j < k; ++j) {
cout << array[j] << endl;
}
If you wanted to print the array in main, you need to change the function a bit, by passing in a pointer to the array rather than the array itself.
Also, your main function never initialised an array to pass into your function.
int main (void) {
int a[20];
testing (a, 20);
return 0;
}
Finally, set the return type of the testing function to void.
void testing (int array[], int k);
All in all, it should instead look like this:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std; // I don't recommend doing this
void testing (int * array, const int k);
int main (void) {
const int size = 20;
int a[size] = {0};
testing (a, size);
for (int i = 0; i < size; ++i) {
cout << a[i] << endl;
}
return 0;
}
void testing (int * array, const int k) {
for (int i = 0; i < k; ++i) {
array[i] = i;
}
}