The following is split() function declaration: template<typename SequenceSequenceT, typename RangeT, typename PredicateT> SequenceSequenceT & split(SequenceSequenceT &Result, RangeT &Input, PredicateT Pred, token_compress_mode_type eCompress = token_compress_off); Why the 2nd parameter (Input) is declared as a non-const reference? Is it changed by the function? The problem is that it doesn't compile (gcc 4.2) when Input is a temporary.