Arduino simultaneous push button for a counter

Question

I am a newbie with arduino. I am trying to have a counter with 3 buttons. Each Button when pressed will increase the number of counts. The counter should still count if button 2 is pressed while button 1 has not been released, and button 3 should also be able to increase the counter even if button 2 and button 1 are still pressed.

My code below counts if only one button is pressed at a time.

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
LiquidCrystal lcd(7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12);
int pbutton1 = 2;
int pbutton2 = 3;
int pbutton3 = 4;
int count = 0;

void setup() {
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  pinMode (pbutton1, INPUT);
  pinMode (pbutton2, INPUT);
  pinMode (pbutton3, INPUT);

  lcd.print("My Counter");
}

void loop() {

  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
  lcd.print("Total ");
  if (digitalRead(pbutton1) == HIGH) {
    lcd.print(count++);
    while (digitalRead(pbutton1) == HIGH); //monitor button to avoid continous count
  }

  if (digitalRead(pbutton2) == HIGH) {
    lcd.print(count++);
    while (digitalRead(pbutton2) == HIGH); //monitor button to avoid continous count
  }

  if (digitalRead(pbutton3) == HIGH) {
    lcd.print(count++);
    while (digitalRead(pbutton3) == HIGH); //monitor button to avoid continous count
  }
}

Answer 1

while (digitalRead(pbutton1) == HIGH); This blocks execution so nothing else can happen while the button is pressed. To avoid continous updating of the var while the button is pressed, create 3 booleans that keep track of the button state.

bool button1_is_pressed = false;
....
// If the button is pressed AND it was not previously pressed
if (digitalRead(pbutton1) == HIGH && !button1_is_pressed) {
    button1_is_pressed = true;
    lcd.print(count++);
}
// Not pressed - reset state variable
else if (digitalRead(pbutton1) == LOW) {
    button1_is_pressed = false;
}

Do this for the other buttons as well.

Answer 2

I have managed to solve this using the PushButton library. If buttons are pressed simultaneously, the count still sums up when the button is released.

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
#include <Pushbutton.h>

LiquidCrystal lcd(7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12);
int count = 0;

#define button1 14
#define button2 15
#define button3 16

Pushbutton pbutton1(button1);
Pushbutton pbutton2(button2);
Pushbutton pbutton3(button3);

void setup() {
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  lcd.print("My Counter");
}

void loop() {

  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
  lcd.print("Total ");
    if (pbutton1.getSingleDebouncedPress()){
      count = count + 1; //increase the counter once the button is released
    }
    if (pbutton2.getSingleDebouncedPress()){
      count = count + 1; //increase the counter once the button is released
    }
    if (pbutton3.getSingleDebouncedPress()){
      count = count + 1; //increase the counter once the button is released
    }

  lcd.print(count);
}