BEGIN...END

The BEGIN...END statement defines a block of statements. A block of statements is a group of statements that is treated as a single statement. Blocks are necessary when more than one statement is the subject of a conditional or repetitive statement.

Syntax

BEGIN

   statements

END | ENDIF | ENDELSE | ENDFOR | ENDFOREACH | ENDREP | ENDWHILE | ENDCASE | ENDSWITCH

The END identifier used to terminate the block should correspond to the type of statement in which BEGIN is used. The following table lists the correct END identifiers to use with each type of statement.

Statement

END
Identifier

Example

IF expression THEN BEGIN

ENDIF

IF (1) THEN BEGIN

   A=1

ENDIF

ELSE BEGIN

ENDELSE

IF (0) THEN BEGIN

   A=1

ENDIF ELSE BEGIN

   A=2

ENDELSE

FOR variable=init, limit DO BEGIN

ENDFOR

FOR i=1,5 DO BEGIN

   PRINT, array[i]

ENDFOR

FOREACH element, variable [, key] DO BEGIN

ENDFOREACH

arr = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9]

FOREACH element, arr DO BEGIN

   PRINT, element

ENDFOREACH

REPEAT BEGIN

ENDREP UNTIL

REPEAT BEGIN

   A = A * 2

ENDREP UNTIL A GT B

WHILE expression DO BEGIN

ENDWHILE

WHILE ~ EOF(1) DO BEGIN

   READF, 1, A, B, C

ENDWHILE

CASE var OF

ENDCASE

CASE name OF

...

ENDCASE

case_expression: BEGIN

END

CASE name OF

'Moe': BEGIN

         PRINT, 'Stooge'

       END

ENDCASE

SWITCH var OF ENDSWITCH

SWITCH name OF

...

ENDSWITCH

switch_expression: BEGIN

END

SWITCH name OF

'Moe': BEGIN

         PRINT, 'Stooge'

       END

ENDSWITCH

Version History

Original

Introduced

See Also

BREAK, CASE, CONTINUE, FOR, FOREACH, GOTO, IF...THEN...ELSE, REPEAT...UNTIL, SWITCH, WHILE...DO, IDL Programming