What is the difference between return and exit statement?

Reference:

1. difference between exit and return
2. Stack Overflow: return statement vs exit() in main()
3. GeeksforGeeks: return statement vs exit() in main()

C

• return is an instruction of the language that returns from a function call.
• exit is a system call (not a language statement) that terminates the current process.

Example with return:

#include <stdio.h>

void f(){
    printf("Executing f\n");
    return;
}

int main(){
    f();
    printf("Back from f\n");
}

Output:

Executing f

Back from f

Another example for exit():

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void f(){
    printf("Executing f\n");
    exit(0);
}

int main(){
    f();
    printf("Back from f\n");
}

Output:

Executing f

C++

When I call return in main(), destructors will be called for my locally scoped objects. If I call exit(), no destructor will be called for my locally scoped objects! Re-read that. exit() does not return. That means that once I call it, there are "no backsies." Any objects that you've created in that function will not be destroyed. Often this has no implications, but sometimes it does, like closing files (surely you want all your data flushed to disk?).

Note that static objects will be cleaned up even if you call exit(). Finally note, that if you use abort(), no objects will be destroyed. That is, no global objects, no static objects and no local objects will have their destructors called.

In C++, what is the difference between exit(0) and return 0 ?

When exit(0) is used to exit from program, destructors for locally scoped non-static objects are not called. But destructors are called if return 0 is used.

Program 1 – – uses exit(0) to exit

#include<iostream>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

using namespace std;

class Test {
public:
  Test() {
    printf("Inside Test's Constructor\n");
  }

  ~Test(){
    printf("Inside Test's Destructor");
    getchar();
  }
};

int main() {
  Test t1;

  // using exit(0) to exit from main
  exit(0);
}

Output:

Inside Test’s Constructor

Program 2 – uses return 0 to exit

#include<iostream>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

using namespace std;

class Test {
public:
  Test() {
    printf("Inside Test's Constructor\n");
  }

  ~Test(){
    printf("Inside Test's Destructor");
  }
};

int main() {
  Test t1;

   // using return 0 to exit from main
  return 0;
}

Output:

Inside Test’s Constructor

Inside Test’s Destructor

Program 3 - static objects

static objects will be cleaned up even if we call exit(). For example, see following program.

#include<iostream>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

using namespace std;

class Test {
public:
  Test() {
    printf("Inside Test's Constructor\n");
  }

  ~Test(){
    printf("Inside Test's Destructor");
    getchar();
  }
};

int main() {
  static Test t1;  // Note that t1 is static

  exit(0);
}

Output:

Inside Test’s Constructor

Inside Test’s Destructor