Polynomial code - c++

Question

I'm working on an assignment for my C++ class and have run into a little problem when running the program. I get an error stating Unhandled exception at 0x000944C8 in Pog11.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation writing location 0x00000000. while debugging. The goal is to read in the int degree of a polynomial, as well as the double coefficients.
here is the .h file that I was supplied:
#ifndef POLYNOMIAL_H
#define POLYNOMIAL_H
#include<iostream>
using std::ostream;
using std::istream;
using std::cerr;
using std::endl;
class Polynomial
{
friend ostream& operator<<( ostream& left , const Polynomial& right);
friend istream& operator>>( istream& left , Polynomial& right );
public:
Polynomial();
Polynomial( int degree, const double* coefficients );
Polynomial( const Polynomial& );
~Polynomial();
const Polynomial& operator=( const Polynomial& deg);
bool operator==( const Polynomial& deg ) const;
void setDegree(int d);
int getDegree() const;
private:
int degree;
double* coefficients;
};
#endif
And here is the segment of code that is causing the error:
istream& operator>>(istream& left, Polynomial& right)
{
int tmp;
left >> tmp;
right.setDegree(tmp);
int i = 0;
while (i<=right.getDegree())
{
double co;
left >> co;
right.coefficients[i] = co;
i++;
}
return left;
}
Specifically the right.coefficients[i]=co; line is what causes the program to crash.
Here are the constructors for the class:
#include "Polynomial.h"
Polynomial::Polynomial() :degree(0), coefficients(0)
{
degree = 0;
coefficients = new double[degree];
}
Polynomial::Polynomial(int deg, const double* coefficients)
{
if (deg < 0)
{
degree = 0;
}
else
{
degree = deg;
}
coefficients = new double [degree];
}
Polynomial::Polynomial(const Polynomial& deg)
{
if (deg.getDegree() <= 0)
{
setDegree(0);
}
else
{
setDegree(deg.getDegree());
for (int i = 0; i < degree; i++)
{
coefficients[i] = deg.coefficients[i];
}
}
}

Answer 1

There's code missing - e.g. the implementation of the constructor of the Polynomial object.
I'm pretty sure that your error is that you have not allocated (enough) memory for the coefficients data member. There must be a
coefficients = new double[number_of_coeffs]
somewhere in your code.
EDIT
There's a number of points where you need to do this: where the degree of the polynomial is (re)set. Because then you know the degree of the polynomial:
Here you must copy the elements passed:
Polynomial( int degree, const double* coefficients ):
coefficients( new double[degree] ), degree( degree )
{
::memcpy(this->coefficients, coefficients, degree * sizeof(double));
}
and in this one, the degree of the polynomial changes - so your coefficients array must be modified accordingly.
Polynomial::setDegree( int degree ) {
// first delete the old coefficients
delete [] coeffs;
// and make a new array
this->degree = degree;
this->coefficients = new double[ this->degree ];
// initialize the coefficients
..
}
Similar actions have to be done in the copy constructor and the assignment operator.
Finally: you might be better off using std::vector<double> which basically does all the memory management for you. See http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container/vector