Divide n conquer algo

[Prax]

I am using a divide and conquer method to divide an array till it contains only 4 elements or less , once it contain 4 elements we need to sum the elements which is done by the func sum.
below is my code for divide.
when i run the program,the if condition is always satisfied and it does the sum of first 4 elements and the rest of the elements the else if condition is not satisfied, please let me know the error.

void divide(int a[], int start, int i, int l)
{

cout<<"Enter Divide";
int q = (i + start)/2;
cout<<q<<endl;
l++;
if (q = 4)
{
cout<<"Enter Sum";
sum(a,start,(q-1),l);
sum(a,q,i,l);
return;
}
else if (q>4)
{
cout<<"Enter else";
divide(a,start,q,l);
divide(a,q,i,l);
}
}
void sum (int a[],int ii, int jj, int l)
{
int add, counter;
cout<<"Enter sum 2";
cout<<"The recurrence level is:"<<l<<endl;
for( counter = ii ;counter <= jj; counter ++)
{
add = add + a[counter];
}
cout<<"The sum of the elements of the subproblem is :"<<add<<endl;
add = 0;
}

[ne555]

q = 4; //assignment
q == 4; //comparison 

[Prax]

Please let me know the limiting condition coz it is goin into an infinite loop.

[ne555]

Please indent your code and use meaningful names for your variables.

int q = (i + start)/2; //average
//...
else if (q>4)
{
   cout<<"Enter else";
   divide(a,start,q,l);
   divide(a,q,i,l);
}

You stop the recursion when the average is equal or less than 4.
However, your recursive calls are constantly increasing the numbers, so it will not end.

[Prax]

The if condition above has a return , which will terminate the loop.
please inform Wat can be the limiting condition?

[Prax]

I could run the below code for 16 elements but when the elements in the array is increased to 32 it again goes into an infinite loop
void divide(int a[], int start, int i, int l)
{
int add1=0;
int add2=0;
cout<<"Enter Divide";
int q = (i - start)/2;
cout<<q<<endl;
l++;
if (q == 4)
{
cout<<"Enter Sum";
add1 = a[q+start-4]+a[q+start-1]+a[q+start-2]+a[q+start-3];
cout<<"The sum of the elements is :"<<add1<<endl;
cout<<"The level is :"<<l<<endl;
add2= a[i-q]+a[i-q+1]+a[i-q+2]+a[i-q+3];
cout<<"The sum is :"<<add2<<endl;
return;
}
else
{
cout<<"Enter else";
divide(a,start,q,l);
divide(a,q,i,l);
}
}

Please let me know how to generalize the above.