Before C++14, when implementing a function template you did not know the return type of your functions, you had to do something like this:

template <typename A, typename B>
auto do_something(const A& a, const B& b) -> decltype(a.do_something(b))
{
  return a.do_something(b);
}

You had to use “decltype” in order to say the compiler: “The return type of this method is the return type of method do_something of object a”. The “auto” keyword used to say the compiler: “The return type of this function is declared at the end”.

Since C++14, you can do something by far simpler:

template <typename A, typename B>
auto do_something(const A& a, const B& b)
{
  return a.do_something(b);
}

In C++14, the compiler deduces the return type of the methods that have “auto” as return type.

Restrictions:

All returned values must be of the same type. My example below does not compile because I am returning an “int” or a “double”.

auto f(int n)
{
	if (n == 1)
		return 1;

	return 2.0;
}

For recursive functions, a return value must be returned before the recursive call in order to let the compiler to know what will be the type of the value to return, as in this example:

auto accumulator(int n)
{
	if (n == 0)
		return 0;

	return n + accumulator(n - 1);
}