C++ While loop ending unexpectedly - c++

Question

I have a while loop that runs independently in a second thread in my c++ program, however the loop ends without meeting the conditions I have set.
I have tried setting a counter to keep track of how many times the loop runs and it is different every time, ranging from eight to hundreds of times.
Does anyone know why this could be happening?
while (ghostPosition.X != playerPosition.X && ghostPosition.Y != playerPosition.Y)
{
randomDirection = getRandomNumber(1, 5);
x = ghostPosition.X;
y = ghostPosition.Y;
if (randomDirection == 1)
{
if (ghostPosition.X > 1)
{
COORD oldPosition = { x, y };
COORD moveTo = { --x, y };
updateGraphics(oldPosition, moveTo, ghost);
ghostPosition.X = ghostPosition.X--;
}
}
else if (randomDirection == 2)
{
if (ghostPosition.Y < 84)
{
COORD oldPosition = { x, y };
COORD moveTo = { x, ++y };
updateGraphics(oldPosition, moveTo, ghost);
ghostPosition.Y = ghostPosition.Y++;
}
}
else if (randomDirection == 3)
{
if (ghostPosition.X < 24)
{
COORD oldPosition = { x, y };
COORD moveTo = { ++x, y };
updateGraphics(oldPosition, moveTo, ghost);
ghostPosition.X = ghostPosition.X++;
}
}
else if (randomDirection == 4)
{
if (ghostPosition.Y > 1)
{
COORD oldPosition = { x, y };
COORD moveTo = { x, --y };
updateGraphics(oldPosition, moveTo, ghost);
ghostPosition.Y = ghostPosition.Y--;
}
}
}
functions called inside loop:
int Maze::getRandomNumber(int minimum, int maximum)
{
int output;
std::random_device randomDevice;
std::mt19937 mersenneTwister(randomDevice());
std::uniform_real_distribution<double> distribution(minimum, maximum);
return distribution(mersenneTwister);
}
The only other function called (updateGraphics) simply modifies the console's output based on the parameters passed. (I don't think that this function is the issue)

Answer 1

I think you want this loop to execute while the player and ghost positions are different. But that's not the condition you've defined. Your loop executes while the player and ghost X positions are different AND the player and ghost Y positions are different. If either are the same, then the loop will stop. I think you want OR.

Answer 2

Hard to tell without some debugging information. Why don't you print out the contents of ghostPosition and playerPosition just before the close of the while loop and post them back.
Also, running the risk of sounding pedantic, you can simply your loop logic by using a swtich statement rather than a multitude of if/else statements.