passing vector<char> to a pointer char* - c++

Question

how do I pass a char vector to a char*? I know this problem could easily be solved with a predefined char[] array with a SIZE const, but I want the flexibility of a vector because there will be no predefined size.
using namespace std;
//prototype
void getnumberofwords(char*);
int main() {
//declare the input vector
vector<char> input;
/*here I collect the input from user into the vector, but I am omitting the code here for sake of brevity...*/
getnumberofwords(input);
//here is where an ERROR shows up: there is no suitable conversion from std::vector to char*
return 0;
}
void getnumberofwords(char *str){
int numwords=0;
int lengthofstring = (int)str.size();
//this ERROR says the expression must have a case
//step through characters until null
for (int index=0; index < lengthofstring; index++){
if ( *(str+index) == '\0') {
numwords++;
}
}
}

Answer 1

You can use data() member to get the pointer to the underlying array:
getnumberofwords(input.data());

Answer 2

The most obvious is to pass &your_vector[0]. Be sure to add a NUL to the end of your vector first though.
Alternatively, use std::string instead of std::vector<char>, in which case you can get a NUL-terminated string with the c_str member function.
Edit: I have to wonder, however, why getnmberofwords would be written to accept a char * unless it's some old C code that you just can't get away from using.
Given a typical definition of "word" counting some words that start out in a string can be done something like this:
std::istringstream buffer(your_string);
size_t num_words = std::distance(std::istream_iterator<std::string>(buffer),
std::istream_iterator<std::string>());

Answer 3

You should pass the reference of the vector to the function getnumberofwords.
void getnumberofwords(vector<char>& str){
int numwords=0;
int lengthofstring = str.size();
for (int index=0; index < lengthofstring; index++){
if ( str[index] == '\0') {
numwords++;
}
}
}
There is no method for converting the type from vector to pointer.

Answer 4

here's what I ended up doing which worked:
#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
#include <string>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;
//prototype
void getnumberofwords(char*);
void getavgnumofletters(char*, int);
int main() {
const int SIZE=50;
char str[SIZE];
cout<<"Enter a string:";
cin.getline(str, SIZE);
getnumberofwords(str);
return 0;
}
void getnumberofwords(char *str){
int numwords=0;
int lengthstring=strlen(str);
//step through characters until null
for (int index=0; index < lengthstring; index++){
if (str[index] ==' ') {
numwords++;
}else{
continue;
}
}
numwords+=1;
cout<<"There are "<<numwords<<" in that sentence "<<endl;
getavgnumofletters(str, numwords);
}
void getavgnumofletters(char *str, int numwords) {
int numofletters=0;
double avgnumofletters;
int lengthstring=strlen(str);
//step through characters until null
for (int index=0; index < lengthstring; index++){
if (str[index] != ' ') {
numofletters++;
}else{
continue;
}
}
avgnumofletters = (double)numofletters/numwords;
cout<<"The average number of letters per word is "<<setprecision(1)<<fixed<<avgnumofletters<<endl;
}
/*