is this bad?


struct something floattosomething(float f){
       struct something * ret = (struct something*)malloc(sizeof(struct something));
       ret->type = 3;
       ret->f = f;
       return *ret;
}

>>3
return type of *ret is value of pointer at ret. It crashes because it tries to copy the value of entire struct to the stack. instead of the pointer
you should try
 return ret;