Return by Reference

Some of the features of Return to reference are listed here:

• The use of references instead of Pointers makes the use C++ program easier to read and maintain.
• A function in C++ program can return a reference just like the way it returns a pointer. 
• Also, if a function returns a reference, it returns an implicit pointer to its returned value, in so doing it can be used on the left side of an assignment statement

take for instance this simple program:

Example:

#include <iostream>

int n;
int& test();

int main() {
test() = 5;
cout<<n;
return 0;
}

int& test() {
return n;
}