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JavaScript

Posted by Cristina Davis
Cristina Davis
10,860 Points

Why is this an Infinite Loop? Doesn't the counter++ adds?

let counter = 0;
while ( counter >= 0 ) {
  console.log(`The counter is: ${counter}`)
  counter++;
}

Sorry, I don't understand the last bit. Can someone please break it down?

This is how I'm interpreting:

  1. Counter = 0
  2. while counter less or equal to 0
  3. log
  4. Increase 0 +1
  5. Next loop

Mod edit: added markdown for code readability. Check out the "markdown cheatsheet" linked below the comment box for syntax examples.

1 Answer

Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,820 Points
Cameron Childres
Cameron Childres
11,820 Points

Hi Cristina,

Your condition as written checks if the counter is greater than or equal to zero. As the counter increases the condition will always be valid so it will continue on forever. There's also a semicolon missing after console.log().

If you change it to <= or = then the loop will run just one time:

let counter = 0;
while ( counter <= 0 ) {
  console.log(`The counter is: ${counter}`);
  counter++;
}
// logs "The counter is: 0"