Here's probably a very noobish question for you: How (if at all possible) can I return an ifstream from a function?

Basically, I need to obtain the filename of a database from the user, and if the database with that filename does not exist, then I need to create that file for the user. I know how to do that, but only by asking the user to restart the program after creating the file. I wanted to avoid that inconvenience for the user if possible, but the function below does not compile in gcc:

ifstream getFile() {
    string fileName;
    cout << "Please enter in the name of the file you'd like to open: ";
    cin >> fileName;
    ifstream first(fileName.c_str());
    if(first.fail()) {
        cout << "File " << fileName << " not found.\n";
        first.close();
        ofstream second(fileName.c_str());
        cout << "File created.\n";
        second.close();
        ifstream third(fileName.c_str());
        return third; //compiler error here
    }
    else
        return first;
}

EDIT: sorry, forgot to tell you where and what the compiler error was:

main.cpp:45: note: synthesized method ‘std::basic_ifstream<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_ifstream(const std::basic_ifstream<char, std::char_traits<char> >&)’ first required here 

EDIT: I changed the function to return a pointer instead as Remus suggested, and changed the line in main() to "ifstream database = *getFile()"; now I get this error again, but this time in the line in main():

main.cpp:27: note: synthesized method ‘std::basic_ifstream<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_ifstream(const std::basic_ifstream<char, std::char_traits<char> >&)’ first required here