diff --git a/cJSON.c b/cJSON.c
index 766e558ef06d4e97525a85f937aae4709f26d808..ded3c8802c10a287fc5807b4d1a888c6c9a817fe 100644
--- a/cJSON.c
+++ b/cJSON.c
@@ -712,8 +712,9 @@ static char *print_string_ptr(const char *str, printbuffer *p)
 
     ptr = str;
     /* calculate additional space that is needed for escaping */
-    while ((token = *ptr) && ++len)
+    while ((token = *ptr))
     {
+        ++len;
         if (strchr("\"\\\b\f\n\r\t", token))
         {
             len++; /* +1 for the backslash */