--- a/src/ChangeLog
+++ b/src/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2010-03-01  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
+
+	* (str2double1): Pass argument as const reference and make
+	explicit copy instead of passing by value.
+
 2010-03-01  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
 
 	* DLD-FUNCTIONS/str2double.cc (set_component): Use autoconf

--- a/src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/str2double.cc
+++ b/src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/str2double.cc
@@ -158,10 +158,14 @@
 }
 
 static Complex
-str2double1 (std::string str)
+str2double1 (const std::string& str_arg)
 {
   Complex val (0.0, 0.0);
+
+  std::string str = str_arg;
+
   std::string::iterator se = str.end ();
+
   // Remove commas (thousand separators) and spaces.
   se = std::remove (str.begin (), se, ',');
   se = std::remove (str.begin (), se, ' ');