Cannot find the error

[Hercules]

We were told that there is a major error with this code but it still manages to run. I know it has something to do with passing by reference and the pointers but it seems very messy.

#include<iostream>
using namespace std ;

float* calculatePercentage ( float mark , float total )
{
    float percentage = mark / total *100;
    return &percentage ;
}

int main ()
{
    float* percent = 0;
    percent = calculatePercentage (1 ,10);
    cout << " The percentage is " << *percent << " % " << endl ;

 return 0;
}

[MiiNiPaa]

Same (in the essence) question:
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/134961/

[xismn]

As MiiNiPaa has said, the function returns a pointer to a variable which ceases to exist once the function terminates. Either pass by reference or return by value (or reference).