diff --git a/src/variable.cpp b/src/variable.cpp
index 449efe6d7b..6eb483976b 100644
--- a/src/variable.cpp
+++ b/src/variable.cpp
@@ -4089,10 +4089,10 @@ int Variable::special_function(char *word, char *contents, Tree **tree, Tree **t
       print_var_error(FLERR, fmt::format("Invalid kind {} in label2type() in variable",kind),ivar);
     }
 
-    if (strcmp(word,"label2type") == 0 && value == -1)
-      print_var_error(FLERR, fmt::format("Invalid {} type label {} in label2type() in variable",
-                                         kind, typestr), ivar);
-    else value = (value == -1) ? 0.0 : 1.0;
+    if (strcmp(word,"label2type")) == 0) {
+      if (value == -1) print_var_error(FLERR, fmt::format("Invalid {} type label {} in label2type() in variable",
+                                       kind, typestr), ivar);
+    } else value = (value == -1) ? 0.0 : 1.0;
 
     // save value in tree or on argstack