Basic question - I only want something to happen once in an IF statement

Using Arduino Programming Questions
#1

I am a new user to the Arduino but I do have basic electronics and programming knowledge, I have studied C++, Java and PHP many years ago although forgotten most of it now!

I am writing a basic hand loop game out of an old coat hanger. I thought it would be really simple. The coat hanger is just a switch which is connected to a pin setup as an input on the Arduino.

I then setup a variable called lives, each time the switch is triggered I set the lives detract by 1.

It works perfectly if I just want to change the colour of an LED, (one colour each for live) and of course once the lives run out, setting the lives back to 4 resets the game.

My problem is what I actually want to do is make the LEDs flash via a for loop for a few seconds before the LED changes colour, I’ve also added a small delay to make sure the user has enough time to start the next life.

My problem is the IF statement keeps repeating itself as it is in a loop for example the code inside this if statement runs in a loop until another live is not and lives=1 etc. I only want the tone and the LED flash sequence to run 5 times, and then the amber LED will light up until the next condition occurs. Instead it runs continuously until another life is lost.

 else  if (lives == 2) {
     for (int i=0; i <= 5; i++){
     digitalWrite(greenPin, HIGH);
     digitalWrite(redPin, LOW);
     digitalWrite(amberPin, LOW);
     delay(25);
     digitalWrite(greenPin, LOW);
     digitalWrite(redPin, LOW);
     digitalWrite(amberPin, HIGH);
     delay(25);
     digitalWrite(greenPin, LOW);
     digitalWrite(redPin, HIGH);
     digitalWrite(amberPin, LOW);
     delay(250);
     tone (8, 150, 200);
      }

  digitalWrite(amberPin, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(greenPin, LOW);
  digitalWrite(redPin, LOW);
  }

So to put it simply, even the condition lives=2 may exist for a long time, I only want the sequence of events to happen once, not continuously until the variable lives changes.

Am I being very thick here and missed something very obvious?

Thanks :).

#2

Just talked out the problem in my head, and I think I just need to add another variable, lets call it N

n=1
if n=1 then do stuff
n--;

I think that will do it :). I will also make an array one for each live.

I will let you know if this works, in the meantime any input is still welcome.

#3

Sold it now I simple made a new variable, set it to 1, put an if inside an if (nested I believe?) then after the LED and tone sequence has finished, set that variable to 0 and now the sequence only runs once :).

I am sure there might be a more efficient way of doing it but it now works perfectly :).

#4

Not more efficient but easier to read would be a boolean variable set to true or false. Then you can write

if (OKtoRun)
{
  //do stuff
  OKtoRun = false;  //prevent execution a second time.
}
#5