diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/syntax/SketchTokenMaker.java b/app/src/processing/app/syntax/SketchTokenMaker.java
index 92f105bc5..14a1d936f 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/syntax/SketchTokenMaker.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/syntax/SketchTokenMaker.java
@@ -32,8 +32,6 @@ package processing.app.syntax;
 
 import org.fife.ui.rsyntaxtextarea.modes.CPlusPlusTokenMaker;
 
-import java.util.Arrays;
-
 /**
  * Controls the syntax highlighting of {@link SketchTextArea} based on the {@link PdeKeywords}
  *
@@ -51,6 +49,11 @@ public class SketchTokenMaker extends CPlusPlusTokenMaker {
 
   @Override
   public void addToken(char[] array, int start, int end, int tokenType, int startOffset, boolean hyperlink) {
+    if (start > end) {
+      super.addToken(array, start, end, tokenType, startOffset, hyperlink);
+      return;
+    }
+
     // This assumes all of your extra tokens would normally be scanned as IDENTIFIER.
     int newType = pdeKeywords.getTokenType(array, start, end);
     if (newType > -1) {