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To preface this I'd like to say that THIS IS NOT HOMEWORK. I am writing this code to practice skills and learn different techniques. The challenge of this specific code is to have 3 values returned to the user using a function and if else statements only. I have successfully made what I believe to be a working function. However, my int main() outputs a zero instead of the expected 6, 12, 16 answer. Can anyone give me pointers as to where I am going wrong?

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int sort2(int a, int b, int c)
 if (a>b && a>c)
 int value1 = a;
 if (b>c)
 int value2 = b;
 int value3 = c;
 else 
 int value2 = c;
 int value3 = b;
 
 
 if (b>a && b>c)
 int value1 = b;
 if (a>c)
 int value2 = a;
 int value3 = c;
 else 
 int value2 = c;
 int value3 = a;
 
 
 if (c>a && c>b)
 int value1 = c;
 if(a>b)
 int value2 = a;
 int value3 = b;
 else 
 int value2 = b;
 int value3 = a;
 
 


int main()
 int result = sort2(12,16,6);
 cout<<result;

You are actually not returning anything from your function. Compilers can warn about this (not always), turn up your warning levels. Moreover your function is declared to return a single integer. And then, for example here:

if (b>c)
 int value2 = b;
 int value3 = c;

you declare two variables that are local to the if block. Those statements have no effect whatsoever. To be honest the best advice I can give is to grab a book or two. Anyhow...

The challenge of this specific code is to have 3 values returned to
the user using a function and if else statements only.

I understand that you want to practice if else statements and writing a function. This alone is unfortunately not sufficient to do what you want, but you can make your code work with minimal changes by returning a structure that contains the 3 values:

struct sorted_3_values 
 int value1;
 int value2;
 int value3;
;

And then change your function to

sorted_3_values sort2(int a, int b, int c)
 sorted_3_values result;
 if ( ... ) 
 result.value1 = ...;
 result.value2 = ...;
 result.value3 = ...;
 
 return result;

And then in main

sorted_3_values x = sort2(12,16,6);
std::cout << x.value1 << " " << x.value2 << " " << x.value3;

Be aware that if you write code like this, then you are not really using c++. At some point you should take a look at containers (eg std::vector) and algorithms (std::find).