A structure is not a pointer. If you want to be able to return NULL, you're going to have to allocate the structure on the heap so you can return a pointer to it, and let the caller clean up afterwards.

That way, you can indicate failure, something like:

MyStruct *init_mystruct (void) {
    MyStruct *mystruct = malloc (sizeof (*mystruct));
    if (mystruct != NULL)
        return NULL;

    int is_ok   = 1;
    /* do something ... */

    /* everything is OK */
    if( is_ok )
        return mystruct;

    /* something went wrong */

    free (mystruct);
    return NULL;
}

int main (void) {
    MyStruct *mystruct = init_mystruct();

    if (mystruct == NULL) {
        /* error handler */
        return -1;
    }

    free (mystruct);

    return 0;
}

There are several fairly standard ways of doing this. There are different tradeoffs for the methods, which I'm not going to go into here.

Method 1: Throw an exception on failure.

Normal Sphere::hit(Ray ray)
{
   //stuff is done here
   if(something happens) {
       throw InvalidIntersection;
   }
   //other stuff
   return Normal(something, somethingElse);
}

void example(Ray r)
{
   try {
     Normal n = s.hit(r);
     ... SUCCESS CASE ...
   }
   catch( InvalidIntersection& )
   {
      ... FAILURE CASE ...
   }
}

Method 2 return a pointer to a newly allocated object. (You could also use smart pointers, or auto_ptrs to make this a little neater).

Normal* Sphere::hit(Ray ray)
{
   //stuff is done here
   if(something happens) {
       return NULL
   }
   //other stuff
   return new Normal(something, somethingElse);
}

void example(Ray ray)
{
  Normal * n = s.hit(ray);
  if(!n) {
     ... FAILURE CASE ...
  } else {
    ... SUCCESS CASE ...
    delete n;
  }
}

Method 3 is to update an existing object. (You could pass a reference, but a convention I use is that any output parameter is passed by pointer).

bool Sphere::hit(Ray ray, Normal* n)
{
   //stuff is done here
   if(something happens) {
       return false
   }
   //other stuff
   if(n) *n = Normal(something, somethingElse);
   return true;
}

void example(Ray ray)
{
  Normal n;
  if( s.hit(ray, &n) ) {
     ... SUCCESS CASE ...
  } else {
     ... FAILURE CASE ...
  }
}

Method 4: Return an optional<Normal> (using boost or similar)

optional<Normal> Sphere::hit(Ray ray)
{
   //stuff is done here
   if(something happens) {
       return optional<Normal>();
   }
   //other stuff
   return optional<Normal>(Normal(something, somethingElse));
}

void example(Ray ray)
{
  optional<Normal> n = s.hit(ray);
  if( n ) {
     ... SUCCESS CASE (use *n)...
  } else {
     ... FAILURE CASE ...
  }
}

The problem is that your function must return a value that has the type Stack.

The code you provided doesn't define the type of NULL, but, since you're not seeing another error and you're assigning it to node, I would guess that the type of NULL is StackNode *... or, at least, something compatible with that.

So, there's your problem. You're trying to return something with the type StackNode * when your function claims to return a Stack.

Your best bet is to redesign this function that returns the result of the push operation and not the Stack itself.

There are several possible answers here. You want to return something that might exist. Here are some options, ranging from my least preferred to most preferred:

• Return by reference, and signal can-not-find by exception.

  Attr& getAttribute(const string& attribute_name) const 
  {
     //search collection
     //if found at i
          return attributes[i];
     //if not found
          throw no_such_attribute_error;
  }

It's likely that not finding attributes is a normal part of execution, and hence not very exceptional. The handling for this would be noisy. A null value cannot be returned because it's undefined behaviour to have null references.

• Return by pointer

  Attr* getAttribute(const string& attribute_name) const 
  {
     //search collection
     //if found at i
          return &attributes[i];
     //if not found
          return nullptr;
  }

It's easy to forget to check whether a result from getAttribute would be a non-NULL pointer, and is an easy source of bugs.

• Use Boost.Optional

  boost::optional<Attr&> getAttribute(const string& attribute_name) const 
  {
     //search collection
     //if found at i
          return attributes[i];
     //if not found
          return boost::optional<Attr&>();
  }

A boost::optional signifies exactly what is going on here, and has easy methods for inspecting whether such an attribute was found.

Side note: std::optional was recently voted into C++17, so this will be a "standard" thing in the near future.

I would generally consider returning a pointer from a method in C++ a bad design, and mixing error states and payload data in the return value, too; this is a recipe for unmaintainable code.

Suggested change: Return the fail/success status as int value (or use ternary logic, e. g. boost::tribool), and pass the argument as non-const reference:

/** @returns
    - 1 if a solution has been found. The argument will be updated.
    - 0 if the request has been processed sucessfully, 
      but no (immediate) solution has been found.
      The argument is not modified in this case.
    - -1 if the request failed. The argument is not modified. */
int findSolution(MyClass& argument);

Usage example, leaving out premature optimization to avoid "unnecessary" copies:

MyClass objectToTest(originalUnmutableObject);

switch(findSolution(objectToTest))
{
    case 1:
        //Replace original with updated object, or whatever
        break;
    case 0:
        //Nothing to do (?)
        break;
    case -1:
        //Error handling
        break;
    default:
        //Unexpected return value
        assert(false);
}

An alternative, more sophisticated and reusable approach could be to bundle error state and object into a generic result class; this pattern was inspired by Rust. I leave the implementation of Result to you.

template<typename T>
class Result
{
    public:
        Result() = delete;
        Result(int error);
        Result(const T& data);
        Result(T&& data);

        //Methods
        bool isOk() const;
        bool isError(int error) const;
        int error() const;
        const T& data() const;

    private:
        //Variables
        int m_error = 0;
        T m_data;
};

...

Result<MyClass> findSolution(const MyClass& argument)
{
    int errorCode = 0;

    ...

    if(errorCode != 0)
        return Result(errorCode);
    else if(solutionFound)
        //Error code of result will be 0, Result::isOk() == true
        return Result(update(argument, solution));
    else
        //Error code of result will be 1, Result::isOk() == false
        return Result(1);
}

You could return a std::unique_ptr<std::vector<int>> and check that value, or throw an exception, or check vector.size() == 0 etc.

Why "besides using pointers"? Using pointers is the way you do it in C++. Unless you define some "optional" type which has something like the isNull() function you mentioned. (or use an existing one, like boost::optional)

References are designed, and guaranteed, to never be null. Asking "so how do I make them null" is nonsensical. You use pointers when you need a "nullable reference".