well, that is precisely the problem. Here are more annotations --

while (looping over something) {
  if (cond1) {
    create @foo if cond1 is met
    do a bunch of things, and go to the next iteration in the loop
  } else {
    since cond1 is not met, don't create a new @foo
    but do something to @foo already declared in the prev iteration
    do other things, and go to the next iteration in the loop
  }
}
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This makes sense if you look at the context of my question. I am looping over a result set that has duplicates (carmakers with their makes). I want to eliminate the display of duplicate carmakers, but remember them in successive iterations so I can associate all their makes correctly to them.