A common way to solve that is to have a function argument point to a place where you want the result to end up, and always return FOO_ERROR or FOO_OK. i.e.,

A common way to solve that is to have a function argument point to a place where you want the result to end up, and always return FOO_ERROR or FOO_OK. i.e., int foo_new(foo_t **res); int foo_mutate_copy(foo_t *foo, bar_t *bar, foo_t **new_foo); Instead of foo_t *foo_new(); // returns NULL on failure foo_t *foo_mutate_copy(foo_t *foo, bar_t *bar); // returns NULL on failure I also like the Go way, just thought this way of doing things in C should be mentioned in the thread.