Returning an error in a function

[joshiv]

I want to return a string "error" from a function that returns an int on successful completion. How can I do it?

[Mathhead200]

//like this?
int f() {
  if( something_wrong )
    throw "error";
  else
    return some_int;
}

Edit: Technically this throws a char*, if you really want a string throw string("error");