# Increment/decrement property using core nodes
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004
**Category:** General
**Created:** [21 January 2022 10:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004 "2022-01-21T10:01:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 10:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/1 "2022-01-21T10:01:41Z")
My cheerlights flow got itself trapped in a loop so I want to add a counter and get it to give up after 10 attempts
So I added a change node at start of flow to set flow.attempts to 10 and then added a switch later on in the loop to detect if attempts \< 0
Then I went to add something to decrement flow.attempts and realised that I couldn't come up with anything to do that (without code)
I'm wondering if maybe the change node could have an increment option added to let us do this?
Or is there an easy method I've missed?
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### Author:  [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 10:10 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/2 "2022-01-21T10:10:49Z")
> [@cymplecy](#):
>
> Or is there an easy method I've missed?
Well, not as simple as chosing an `increment` drop down but, not sooo difficult
Simon, I sometimes think your aversion to function nodes is `counter` productive 😉 (see what I did there 😆 )
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### Author:  [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 10:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/3 "2022-01-21T10:16:09Z")
I am the ultimate block-based programmer evangelist - someone has to fight the good fight 🙂
Node-RED should (IMO) always (as it does in LOTS of cases) let us do simple operations without coding
And of course, even when I code, I 99% use Bart's Blockly node 🙂
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### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 11:19 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/4 "2022-01-21T11:19:47Z")
Actually I can envisage a simple node that does things like this... but of course the instant reaction is scope creep... I would want simple add, subtract, multiply, divide etc of the "payload" by a constant, (eg see Steve's buffer parser) or flow/global property... oh and then combinations like multiply and add etc (degC to degF etc). - oh then maybe AND, OR, XOR - etc etc... Not saying it can't be done (probably should be) - - but needs some design work first - and then indeed should it be part of the change node ? (see other recent discussions on change node) - or a new numeric only calculator node ?
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### Author:  [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 11:28 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/5 "2022-01-21T11:28:00Z")
This is something I've been thinking about - having a core set of nodes for common operations on standard JavaScript types.
There is already the [node-red-contrib-string](https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-string) as a node that provides common string functions - not saying that's quite the model I had in mind, but it is along those lines.
A `Maths` node could provide operations for numeric types.
An `Array` node could do simple push/pop/splice etc type operations.
I think it would be worth putting together a concept for it.
Nick
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### Author:  [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 11:32 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/6 "2022-01-21T11:32:53Z")
Super duper 🙂
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### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 12:03 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/7 "2022-01-21T12:03:03Z")
And maybe a conversions node? I could see that would be REALLY useful.
These nodes would also help take Node-RED into improving some areas that it is weak on compared to some other visual tools as well which would be nice. One day, it would be wonderful to be able to use Node-RED to do ETL tasks that people currently switch to Python for. 😀
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### Author:  [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 12:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/8 "2022-01-21T12:09:48Z")
I was wondering if the join node could have an add/minus/multiply/divide setting for numbers with a starting number?
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### Author:  [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 12:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/9 "2022-01-21T12:13:06Z")
I just wanted to subtract 1 from a number .......
🙂
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### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 12:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/10 "2022-01-21T12:13:59Z")
Surely you can do that in the blockly node 🤣
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### Author:  [@jbudd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/jbudd)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 12:21 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/11 "2022-01-21T12:21:36Z")
If someone does a node-red-contrib-just-subtract-one node, can they also assemble an end to end illustrated tutorial to get from the idea **n -=1** to a published node?
It's an intimidating stage of the learning curve.
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### Author:  [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 12:21 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/12 "2022-01-21T12:21:51Z")
> [@dceejay](#):
>
> but of course the instant reaction is scope creep
Dave, can i borrow your crystal ball please?
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### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 14:07 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/13 "2022-01-21T14:07:22Z")
> [@TotallyInformation](#):
>
> And maybe a conversions node?
eg see -
> **[node-red-contrib-unit-converter](https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-unit-converter)**
>
> A Node Red node for unit conversions
> [@cymplecy](#):
>
> I just wanted to subtract 1
... that's how it always starts... 🙂
> [@Steve-Mcl](#):
>
> can i borrow your crystal ball please?
> [@knolleary](#):
>
> A `Maths` node could
... or should that be a "Math" node ...
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### Author:  [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 14:28 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/14 "2022-01-21T14:28:50Z")
> [@dceejay](#):
>
> > [@TotallyInformation](#):
> >
> > And maybe a conversions node?
>
> eg see -
>
> [node-red-contrib-unit-converter (node) - Node-RED](https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-unit-converter)
You know, I read and re-read Julians comment as a **conversations** node. I pondered and pondered and ...
I was scared to ask about what sorcery I was missing out on.
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### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 14:32 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/15 "2022-01-21T14:32:05Z")
It's Friday... I was too blinkered to think that far out of the box... if he had said that I would have missed it
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### Author:  [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 14:33 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/16 "2022-01-21T14:33:40Z")
> [@dceejay](#):
>
> or should that be a "Math" node
That is a can of worms you just opened. I'm with knolleary on this.
> The only difference is that math is preferred in the U.S. and Canada, and maths is preferred in the U.K., Australia, and most other English-speaking areas of the world.
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### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 14:34 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/17 "2022-01-21T14:34:36Z")
me too... I was just have a Friday afternoon moment...
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### Author:  [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 14:37 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/18 "2022-01-21T14:37:28Z")
> [@E1cid](#):
>
> st opened. I'm with knolleary on this.
I very nearly wrote `Math(s)` in my original reply... but my en\_GB nature shone through.
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### Author:  [@shrickus](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/shrickus)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 15:37 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/19 "2022-01-21T15:37:04Z")
There was a recent conversation on slack about adding a `local` context to the `change` node, perfect for things like keeping a counter that can be modified by any expression syntax... perhaps it's time to rethink that as it's a general purpose solution?
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### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [21 January 2022 15:45 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/increment-decrement-property-using-core-nodes/57004/20 "2022-01-21T15:45:44Z")
> [@dceejay](#):
>
> It's Friday... I was too blinkered to think that far out of the box... if he had said that I would have missed it
And I think we have now demonstrated that _we_ are the wolves in the out-of-control trolley!
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