Weird modification to string length

Code:

---


// Structure declaration and type definition
struct wordsRec {
        int type;                                                                       
//        0 represents non-number, 1 represents numbers.
        char value[4];
};
typedef struct wordsRec Words;

int findWords(char *string, Words *outputWords)
{
        int i;
        int numberOfWords = 0;
        int currentChar = 0;
        int length;
        int extraSpaceCheck = 1;                // Catches multiple blank spaces

        printf("strlen(string): %d\n", strlen(string));
        length = strlen(string);
       
        // Sorts the string into seperate 'words'
        for (i = 0; i < length; i++) {
                if (string[i] != ' ') {
                        extraSpaceCheck = 0;
                        if (currentChar == 4) {
                                fprintf(stderr, "Exceeded word limit. Program terminating.\n");
                                exit(1);
                        }
                        outputWords[numberOfWords].value[currentChar++] = string[i];                       
                        if (i == length - 1) outputWords[numberOfWords].value[currentChar] = '\0';
                }
                else if (extraSpaceCheck == 0) {
                        outputWords[numberOfWords].value[currentChar] = '\0';
                        currentChar = 0;
                        numberOfWords++;
                        extraSpaceCheck = 1;
                }
        }
        numberOfWords++;

       
        // Determines if the 'words' are integers or characters
        for (i = 0; i < numberOfWords; i++) {
                outputWords[i].type = 1;
                length = strlen(outputWords[i].value);
                printf("length: %d\n", length);
                for (currentChar = 0; currentChar < length; currentChar++) {
                        if (!(outputWords[i].value[currentChar] == '-' && currentChar == 0)
                                && !(outputWords[i].value[currentChar] >= 48 && outputWords[i].value[currentChar] <= 57)) {
                                outputWords[i].type = 0;
                                break;
                        }
                }
        //        printf("str: %s, %d | %s, %d\n", outputWords[i].value, strlen(outputWords[i].value), outputWords[i - 1].value, strlen(outputWords[i - 1].value));
        }

        // Fixes the 'suddenly changing strlen' problem; artificial solution
        for (i = 0; i < numberOfWords; i++) if (strlen(outputWords[i].value) > 4) outputWords[i].value[4] = '\0';
       
        // Returns the number of words
        return numberOfWords;
}

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The section of the function findWords() where I determine if a word is a number or not, increments the string length of the 'word'. This only happens if the word is 4 character in length (which is the defined max chars in a word), and the word following it is a number. I've looked through my code alot of times and I can't seem to figure out why this is happening.

Any help would be appreciated, and if my code is unclear, I'd be more than happy to elaborate :)

Thanks in advance.