Setting global variable value within functions & if statements

Question

I'm just beginning with javascript, but I've searched and read about the js variablescope, and cant figure this out.

I want to be able to set a variable value declared outside any function, within the functions wich also contains if-statements. But yet it does not change the global variable. Example:

var counter = 0;
goNext();    

function goNext()
{   
    if(counter = 0)
    {
        counter = 3;
    }
}

alert('I now want counter to be 3! How?');

Thank you in advance, dedicated users.

Answer 1

Inside the if you are assigning 0 to counter

if(counter = 0)

The code needs to be

if(counter == 0)

or

if(counter === 0)

Using a tool like JSHint will hlp you find these errors. By pasting your code into the interface, it will show you warnings. When I paste your code into the page it produced:

One warning
6   Expected a conditional expression and instead saw an assignment.