I now realize the importance of posting the problematic code by itself! My appologies
Here is the code ... and it works perfectly well!
#define sp Serial.print
#define spln Serial.println
#include <SPI.h>
#include <Ethernet.h>
void setup() {
Serial.begin(38400);
IPAddress myIP=getIP();
sp("returned ip is ");spln(myIP);
}
void loop(){;}
IPAddress getIP(){
byte byteArray[4]={0,1,2,3};
IPAddress ip (byteArray[0], byteArray[1], byteArray[2], byteArray[3]);
sp("ip in callee is "); spln(ip);
return ip;
}