TikZ: computation in node name

Question

I want to place a variable number of nodes on a page, but I also want to be able to give these nodes a (integer) name. However, I run into the problem that only certain kind of commands can appear in the label of a node (see this question).

My naive attempt to achieve what I want is...

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\def\n{3}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
 \node[draw, circle] (\n + 1) {4};
 \node[draw, circle] (\n + 2) [right of=4] {5};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

...but this gives the error message...

! Package pgf Error: No shape named 4 is known.

...since the name of the node is actually "3 + 1" (or something close to it).

I found this hack...

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\def\n{3}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
 \pgfmathtruncatemacro{\nPlusOne}{\n + 1}
 \node[draw, circle] (\nPlusOne) {4};
 \node[draw, circle] (\n + 2) [right of=4] {5};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

...which has the right behavior. However, when calling nested functions that also use this hack, they redefine \nPlusOne using their given value of \n.

Question

What is a better way to assigned a computed integer to the label of a node?

Answer 1

What about something like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newcounter{n}\setcounter{n}{3}
\addtocounter{n}{1}
\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
     \node[draw, circle] (\arabic{n}){4};
     \addtocounter{n}{1}
     \node[draw, circle] (\arabic{n}) [right of=4] {5};
     \draw (4)--(5);
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

to produce