Dynamic Arrays and Functions

[conqueran]

I'm having a simple problems. I have the function

void testFunction( int * blabla )
{
blabla = new int[5];
blabla[0] = 1; blabla[1] = 4; blabla[2] = 77;

int ff = blabla[2];
//debug point here
}

which declares a new array
but when i pass the pointer into the function like so

int * yay;

testFunction( yay );

int a = yay[2];
//debug point here

the value a doesn't get the value of 77 as stated in the function. I checked this with the debug points. Any idea of what might be going on?

[Peter87]

pointers are y default passed by value. That means the pointer blabla in testFunction is a copy of yay. If you change blabla it will not affect yay.

[conqueran]

thanks for the quick reply. Ive also tried variations with references but I get the error that I cant reference a pointer. Its easy when I have something like

void function( int &a )
{
a += 5;
}

but in this case its different and I dont know what to do.

Anyone know how to handle this scenario so I can change the value of yay?

I tried

void testFunction( int & * blabla )
{
blabla = new int[5];
blabla[0] = 1; blabla[1] = 4; blabla[2] = 77;

int ff = blabla[2];
//debug point here
}

but i get an error

[conqueran]

it seems to work okay when I do it this way

void testFunction( int * & blabla )
{
blabla = new int[5];
blabla[0] = 1; blabla[1] = 4; blabla[2] = 77;

int ff = blabla[2];

}

I don't understand why it works when i reverse the & and the * but it does..

[Peter87]

int*& is a reference to a pointer.
int&* is a pointer to a reference and is not allowed.

Why not return the pointer from the function instead of passing a parameter?