How to write a function that may not return a value?

Question

Programming

For example, there is a search function that looks for an object in an array and returns the first one found, but what should it return if it does not find anything?

Object& find (Object o)
{
    /* Поиск, если нашли */
   return link;
   /* Если не нашли? */
   return NULL; // - Нельзя
}

Answer 1

Object* find (const Object& o)
{
    /* Поиск, если нашли */
   return link;
   /* Если не нашли? */
   return NULL; // Теперь можно
}