JQuery - how to stop a function?

I have this code

<script type="text/javascript"> 
  function test(counter) {
      if(counter==4)
        {
              co开发者_开发知识库unter=0;
         }
      if(counter==0)
         {
            //various stuff

          }

          counter = counter + 1;
         setTimeout(function () { test(counter); }, 7000);
  }

 $(document).ready(function () {

 test(0);

 });
 </script>

So when the page loads the test(0) function is running.

But i have this link <a onclick="test(1)" rel="2" href="#"> that calls the same function again, having as a result to have the same function running twice.

Is there a way to stop the function that is already running and then start the new one??

Save the result of setTimeout(), and use it with clearTimeout().

function test(counter) {
      if(counter==4)
        {
              counter=0;
         }
      if(counter==0)
         {
            //various stuff

          }

          counter = counter + 1;



          var quit;
          //decide whether to continue
         if(!quit)setTimeout(function () { test(counter); }, 7000);


  }