Segmentation fault when creating a row-major array - c++

Question

I'm trying to implement a row-major array, which is basically a single dimension representation of a 2D array.
This is my class definition
class RMA{
public:
RMA(){
size_=0;
row_=0;
column_=0;
arr_ = new double[size_];
}
RMA(int n, int m){
size_ = n*m;
column_ = m;
row_ = n;
if(size_== 0) arr_ = 0;
else arr_ = new double[size_];
}
RMA(const RMA& arr) {
size_ = arr.size_;
if(this != &arr){
delete [] arr_;
arr_ = new double[size_];
for(int i=0; i<size_; i++){
arr_[i] = arr.arr_[i];
}
}
return *this;
}
const double& operator() (int n, int m) const{
return arr_[n*column_+m];
}
double& operator()(int n, int m){
return arr_[n*column_+m];
}
~RMA(){delete[] arr_ ;}
private:
int size_;
int column_;
int row_;
double* arr_;
}
I've a calling function which creates the array.
RMA create_array() {
RMA arr;
arr = RMA(N, M);
std::cout<<"success";
return arr;
}
And this is my client
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
RMA arr = create_array();
return 0;
}
I end up getting segmentation fault. What am I doing wrong.

Answer 1

You use operations, that instead of cloning array, take a shallow copy of an object, and when destructors are used, they try to release the same memory block.
Implement the following operations:
RMA::RMA(const RMA&); // copy constructor - clone buffer
RMA& operator=(const &RMA); // assignment - clone buffer, release old
Also instead of:
RMA rma;
rma = RMA(a,b);
Use:
RMA rma = RMA(a,b) or RMA rma(a,b);
Edit: constructor code:
RMA::RMA(const RMA &rma) : size_(0), row_(0), column_(0), buffer_(0)
{
*this = rma;
}
RMA &operator=(const RMA&rma)
{
double *old = buffer_;
size_ = rma.size_;
row_ = rma.row_;
column_ = rma.column_;
buffer_ = new double[size_];
memcpy(buffer_, rma.buffer_, sizeof(buffer_[0]) * size_);
delete []old;
return *this;
}

Answer 2

The best solution is to get rid of all the new/delete, copy-constructors, and fluff. Use a private member variable to manage the memory, and follow the Rule of Zero. Like this:
struct RMA
{
RMA(size_t r = 0, size_t c = 0)
: row(r), column(c), arr(r * c) {}
const double& operator() (int n, int m) const
{ return arr[n * column + m]; }
double& operator() (int n, int m)
{ return arr[n * column + m]; }
private:
std::vector<double> arr;
size_t row, column;
};
That's it. You should not write any copy-constructor, assignment operator, move whatever, because the default-generated ones already do the right thing.
NB. row is actually redundant in my example too, you could remove it and calculate it when needed as arr.size() / column.
You could use .at( ) instead of [ ] on vector in order to throw an exception for out-of-bounds access, instead of causing undefined behaviour.