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;
}

It is a matter of convention and you should clearly have one in your head and document it (at least in comments).

Sometimes a pointer really should always point to a valid address (see this intSwap example, both arguments should be valid pointers). At other times, it should either be such a valid address, or be NULL. Conceptually the pointer type is then by convention a sum type (between genuine pointer addresses and the special NULL value).

Notice that the C language does not have a type (or a notation) which enforces that some given pointer is always valid and non-null. BTW, with GCC specifically, you can annotate a function with __attribute__ using nonnull to express that a given argument is never null.

A typical example is FILE* pointers in <stdio.h>. The fopen function is documented to be able to return NULL (on failure), or some valid pointer. But the fprintf function is expecting a valid pointer (and passing NULL to it as the first argument is some undefined behavior, often a segmentation fault; and UB is really bad).

Some non-portable programs even use several "special" pointer values (which should not be dereferenced), e.g. (on Linux/x86-64) #define SPECIAL_SLOT (void*)((intptr_t)-1) (which we know that on Linux it is never a valid address). Then we could have the convention that a pointer is a valid pointer to a valid memory zone, or NULL or SPECIAL_SLOT (hence, if seen as an abstract data type, it is a sum type of two distinct invalid pointers NULL and SPECIAL_SLOT and the set of valid addresses). Another example is MAP_FAILURE as result of mmap(2) on Linux.

BTW, when using pointers in C to heap allocated data (indirectly obtained with malloc), you also need conventions about who is in charge of releasing the data (by using free, often thru a supplied function to free a data and all its internal stuff).

Good C programming requires many explicit conventions regarding pointers, and it is essential to understand them precisely and document them well. Look for example[s] into GTK. Read also about restrict.

It looks like you've misunderstood what NULL means in C. Types are not nullable. NULL is effectively just a shorthand for the pointer with value 0! And int is not a pointer.

In C, NULL is just a synonym for 0. So you really only need to do this...

if (current > n) {
    return 0;
}

However, NULL usually refers to a pointer value that is undefined and not an integer. In C, integer values are not references as they are in many interpreted languages. They are scalar and can't be referred to implicitly with a pointer.

If you want to indicate an error condition or undefined behavior when current > n, you will have to provide a separate mechanism for indicating that the value isn't usable. Usually, C functions will return a -1 on an error. Since you are using the integer return for a value, that would mean that a valid value could never be -1.

It looks like you're handling a linked list and you want to limit the number of items to be checked. A possible way around this might be...

int valueOf(t_node *node, int n, int *val){
    int current = 0;
    int value;
    while (node -> next != NULL) {
        value = node -> val;
        if (current == n) {
            // This notation is for dereferencing a pointer.
            *val = value;
            return 0;
        }
        if (current > n) {
            return -1;
        }
        node = node -> next;
        current += 1;
    }
    // This method also gives you a way to indicate that
    // you came to the end of the list. Your code snippet
    // would have returned an undefined value if node->next == null
    return -1;
}

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.

This function

const string& foo(); 

does not return a pointer. It returns a constant reference to an object of type std::string. So its return value may not be assigned to a pointer.

According to the C++ Standard

4.10 Pointer conversions [conv.ptr]

1 A null pointer constant is an integer literal (2.14.2) with value zero or a prvalue of type std::nullptr_t. A null pointer constant can be converted to a pointer type; the result is the null pointer value of that type and is distinguishable from every other value of object pointer or function pointer type. Such a conversion is called a null pointer conversion. Two null pointer values of the same type shall compare equal. The conversion of a null pointer constant to a pointer to cv-qualified type is a single conversion, and not the sequence of a pointer conversion followed by a qualification conversion (4.4). A null pointer constant of integral type can be converted to a prvalue of type std::nullptr_t. [ Note: The resulting prvalue is not a null pointer value. —end note ]

So when you use null pointer constant defined with macro NULL it is assigned to the return pointer of the function that will contain null pointer value of type node *

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 ...
  }
}

First some background ...

The macros are NULL which expands to an implementation-defined null pointer constant; C11 §7.19 3

NULL typically is an integer constant 0 or (void*)0 or the like. It may have a different implementation or type - It could be ((int*) 0xDEADBEEF) as strange as that may be.

NULL might be type int. It might be type void * or something else. The type of NULL is not defined.

When the null pointer constant NULL is cast to any pointer, is is a null pointer. An integer 0 cast to a pointer is also a null pointer. A system could have many different (bit-wise) null pointers. They all compare equally to each other. They all compare unequally to any valid object/function. Recall this compare is done as pointers, not integers.

An integer constant expression with the value 0, or such an expression cast to type void *, is called a null pointer constant. If a null pointer constant is converted to a pointer type, the resulting pointer, called a null pointer, is guaranteed to compare unequal to a pointer to any object or function. C11 §6.3.2.3 3

int x;
if (&x == NULL) ... // this is false

So after all that chapter and verse how to distinguish NULL from 0?

If the macro NULL is defined as an int 0 - it is game over - there is no difference between 0 and NULL.

If NULL is not an int, then code can use _Generic() to differentiate NULL and 0. This does not help OP's "Any change made can only be made within the function itself." requirement as that function accepts an int augment.

If NULL is an int that has a different bit-pattern than 0, then a simple memcmp() can differentiate.

I suspect the whole reason for this exercise is to realize there is no portable method to distinguish NULL from 0.