Why won't my countdown timer start and stop?

Question

I need to make a simple countdown timer from 5 to zero, with the buttons to START and STOP the counter. The only thing that I don't know is that why won't my counter stop.

The code is presented below:

   function clock() {
     var myTimer = setInterval(myClock, 1000);
     var c = 5;

     function myClock() {
       document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = --c;
       if (c == 0) {
         clearInterval(myTimer);
         alert("Reached zero");
       }
     }
   }

<p id="demo">5</p>
<button onclick="clock()">Start counter</button>
<button onclick="clearInterval(myTimer)">Stop counter</button>

Answer 1

Here you go, you just needed to make myTimer global. I also fixed a glitch where after resetting the timer, it won't show 5.

var myTimer;
   function clock() {
     myTimer = setInterval(myClock, 1000);
     var c = 5;

     function myClock() {
       document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = --c;
       if (c == 0) {
         clearInterval(myTimer);
         alert("Reached zero");
       }
     }
   }

<p id="demo">5</p>
<button onclick="clock(); document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML='5';">Start counter</button>
<button onclick="clearInterval(myTimer);">Stop counter</button>