referencing a vector

Question

I have this code

void split(vector<float> &fvec, string str)
{
    int place = 0;
        for(int i=0; i<str.length(); i++)
        {
            if(str.at(i) == ' ')
            {
                fvec.push_back(atoi(str.substr(place,i-place).c_str()));
                place=i+1;
            }
        }
        fvec.push_back(atoi(str.substr(place).c_str()));
}

What im trying to do is pass a reference to a vector into the method so it splits the string i give it into floats without copying the vector... i dont want to copy the vector because it will be containing 1000's of numbers.

is it not possible to pass a vector by reference or am i just making a stupid mistake?

if it helps heres the code im testing it out with

int main (void)
{
    vector<float> fvec;
    string str = "1 2 2 3.5 1.1";

    split(&fvec, str);

    cout<<fvec[0];

    return 0;
}

Answer 1

It is indeed possible. You're just using the wrong syntax. The correct way to do it is :

split(fvec, str);

What you're doing is wrong because it passes the address of the vector as the intended reference.