Postfix increment into if, c#

Question

Code example:

using System;

public class Test {

    public static void Main() {
        int a = 0;
        if(a++ == 0){
            Console.WriteLine(a);
        }
    }
}

In this code the Console will write: 1. I can write this code in another way:

public static void Main() {
        int a = 0;
        if(a == 0){
            a++;
            Console.WriteLine(a);
        }
}

These two examples work exactly the same (from what I know about postfix). The problem is with this example coming from the Microsoft tutorials:

using System;

public class Document {

// Class allowing to view the document as an array of words:
public class WordCollection {
    readonly Document document;

    internal WordCollection (Document d){
        document = d;
    }

    // Helper function -- search character array "text", starting
    // at character "begin", for word number "wordCount". Returns
    //false if there are less than wordCount words. Sets "start" and
    //length to the position and length of the word within text
    private bool GetWord(char[] text, int begin, int wordCount,
                         out int start, out int length) {

        int end = text.Length;
        int count = 0;
        int inWord = -1;
        start = length = 0;
        for (int i = begin; i <= end; ++i){
            bool isLetter = i < end && Char.IsLetterOrDigit(text[i]);
            if (inWord >= 0) {
                if (!isLetter) {
                    if (count++ == wordCount) {//PROBLEM IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!
                        start = inWord;
                        length = i - inWord;
                        return true;
                    }
                    inWord = -1;
                }
            } else {
                if (isLetter) {
                    inWord = i;
                }
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    //Indexer to get and set words of the containing document:
    public string this[int index] {
        get 
        {
            int start, length;
            if(GetWord(document.TextArray, 0, index, out start,
                                                     out length)) {
                return new string(document.TextArray, start, length);                                            
            } else {
                throw new IndexOutOfRangeException();
            }
        }
        set {
            int start, length;
            if(GetWord(document.TextArray, 0, index, out start,
                                                      out length))
            {
                //Replace the word at start/length with 
                // the string "value"
                if(length == value.Length){
                    Array.Copy(value.ToCharArray(), 0,
                               document.TextArray, start, length);
                }                   
                else {
                    char[] newText = new char[document.TextArray.Length +
                                              value.Length - length];
                    Array.Copy(document.TextArray, 0, newText, 0, start);
                    Array.Copy(value.ToCharArray(), 0, newText, start, value.Length);
                    Array.Copy(document.TextArray, start + length, newText, 
                               start + value.Length, document.TextArray.Length - start - length);
                    document.TextArray = newText;
                }
            } else {
                throw new IndexOutOfRangeException();
            }
        }
    }

    public int Count {
        get {
            int count = 0, start = 0, length = 0;
            while (GetWord(document.TextArray, start + length,
                    0, out start, out length)) {
                        ++count;
            }
            return count;
        }
    }
}

// Class allowing the document to be viewed like an array
// of character
public class CharacterCollection {

    readonly Document document;

    internal CharacterCollection(Document d) {
        document = d;
    }

    //Indexer to get and set character in the containing
    //document
    public char this[int index] {
        get {
            return document.TextArray[index];
        }
        set {
            document.TextArray[index] = value;
        }
    }

    //get the count of character in the containing document
    public int Count {
        get {
            return document.TextArray.Length;
        }
    }
}

//Because the types of the fields have indexers,
//these fields appear as "indexed properties":
public WordCollection Words;
public readonly CharacterCollection Characters;

private char[] TextArray;

public Document(string initialText) {
    TextArray = initialText.ToCharArray();
    Words = new WordCollection(this);
    Characters = new CharacterCollection(this);
}

public string Text {
    get {
        return new string(TextArray);
    }
}

class Test {
    static void Main() {
        Document d = new Document(
            "peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many pickled peppers did peter piper pick?"              
        );

        //Change word "peter" to "penelope"
        for(int i = 0; i < d.Words.Count; ++i){
            if (d.Words[i] == "peter") {
                d.Words[i] = "penelope";
            }
        }

        for (int i = 0; i < d.Characters.Count; ++i) {
            if (d.Characters[i] == 'p') {
                d.Characters[i] = 'P';
            }
        }

        Console.WriteLine(d.Text);
    }
}

}

If I change the code marked above to this:

if (count == wordCount) {//PROBLEM IS HERE
                        start = inWord;
                        length = i - inWord;
                        count++;
                        return true;
}

I get an IndexOutOfRangeException, but I don't know why.

Answer 1

Your initial assumption is incorrect (that the two examples work exactly the same). In the following version, count is incremented regardless of whether or not it is equal to wordCount:

if (count++ == wordCount)
{ 
    // Code omitted
}

In this version, count is ONLY incremented when it is equal to wordCount

if (count == wordCount)
{ 
    // Other code omitted
    count++;
}

EDIT

The reason this is causing you a failure is that, when you are searching for the second word (when wordCount is 1), the variable count will never equal wordCount (because it never gets incremented), and therefore the GetWord method returns false, which then triggers the else clause in your get method, which throws an IndexOutOfRangeException.