Return a status separately from a calculated result.

C: An output pointer lets a function return success or failure independently of its numeric result.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <time.h>

static bool divide(int a,int b,int *result) {
    if (b==0 || (a==INT_MIN && b==-1)) return false;
    *result=a/b;
    return true;
}
int main(void) {
    int result=0;
    if (divide(10,2,&result)) printf("%d\n",result);
    puts(divide(10,0,&result)?"accepted":"division rejected");
    return 0;
}

Expected output EXAMPLE

5
division rejected

Details

Save as snippet.c; compile with gcc -std=c17 -Wall -Wextra snippet.c -lm -o snippet, then run ./snippet. An output pointer lets a function return success or failure independently of its numeric result.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · 2026-11-02 18:02:35 UTC · gcc (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04.1) 13.3.0 · gcc 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Unprivileged snippet process, external networking disabled, read-only root filesystem, and a fresh temporary working directory. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel: x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale: uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation: gcc -std=c17 -Wall -Wextra -Werror snippet.c -lm -o snippet && ./snippet
Container image ID: sha256:32dc2d998158b6554c99b73b533f423696a0f3e31e8cbea9db10b5eee9a2fadd
Code SHA-256: fe70ccc23be9036df20de57b2c774988d8b51621693ce12ddde8e01cfa6bc580
Dependencies: gcc 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

# No input files required.

Observed standard output

5
division rejected

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.