Re: JSTL Confusion with <c:set>

I have a small loop, and I'm trying to figure out how to increment a
counter in a specific way.

<c:set var="formCount" value="0"/>
<c:forEach begin="1" end="3" var="count">
        <tag:collectorCompare name="form${count}HeaderOut" valu=

trim="yes">
                <tag:collectorNotEqual>
                        <c:set var="formCount" =

                </tag:collectorNotEqual>
        </tag:collectorCompare>
</c:forEach>

The 'collector' stuff is from a company internal taglib. But my
question relates to the formCount variable. For some reason, even when
the value equals "" (internally it is doing .equals, not ==), it's
setting the formCount variable during every iteration.

Does <c:set> get called no matter what the condition around it? Is
there another construct I should be using? Every time I move through
the forEach loop, it sets the formCount whether the condition fails or
not.