Counter goes negative after reaching break point

[nsanders]

Hi! I've gotten stuck on this piece of code. I tried to add a screenshot of it (Idk if it worked, I haven't used this forum before).

Basically, in my loop:

if (counter < 5) { /* do something */}

The counter increments correctly to 4, but then switches to -32768 and keeps adding one. Therefore the if statement keeps executing even after 5 loops (Because negative number is less than 5).

I have tried changing the limit from 5 to a variety of different numbers and the behavior is the same every time.

Does anyone know why this behavior is happening and how I can get it to behave as intended?

Thank you!

[groundFungus]

Post the whole code. There is information in the missing part. Read the forum guidelines to see how to properly post code.
Use the IDE autoformat tool (ctrl-t or Tools, Auto format) before posting code in code tags.

[Idahowalker]

Whiles waiting for the code, When the counter gets to 5, I take it that's a limit and the counter should be set back to 0?

The counter goes to 6 or 7 or 8 or keeps on counting till the variable overflows then that's a possible cause of this issue.

[groundFungus]

The Serial.println can only happen when counter is less than 5. Once counter is 5 or greater nothing will print, but the counter still increments, until the counter (an int data type) rolls over at 32767 to -32768. Then -32768 is less than 5 so it starts printing again adding one each iteration (-32767, -32766, ...) until it gets to (+) 5 and stop printing again.

[red_car]

If less than 5 then you print the count... but your code continues to add 1 to the counter every loop...

16 bit integers range from -32768 to +32767.

Eventually it gets to +32767... then you add one more.. and it overflows to -32768 (which is less than 5 so it displays again.