Passing Vector to a Function in C++
When we pass an array to a function , a pointer is actually passed.
However, to pass a vector there are two ways to do so:
- Pass By value
- Pass By Reference
When a vector is passed to a function, a copy of the vector is created. This new copy of the vector is then used in the function and thus, any changes made to the vector in the function do not affect the original vector.
For example, we can see below the program, changes made inside the function are not reflected outside because the function has a copy.
Example(Pass By Value):
CPP
10 20
Passing by value keeps the original vector unchanged and doesn’t modify the original values of the vector. However, the above style of passing might also take a lot of time in cases of large vectors. So, it is a good idea to pass by reference.
Example(Pass By Reference):
CPP
10 20 30
Passing by reference saves a lot of time and makes the implementation of the code faster.
Note: If we do not want a function to modify a vector, we can pass it as a const reference also.
CPP
10 20
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