BEGIN...END

Syntax | Version History | See Also

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. For more information on using BEGIN...END and other IDL program control statements, see Program Control (Application Programming).

Syntax

BEGIN

   statements

END | ENDIF | ENDELSE | ENDFOR | ENDREP | ENDWHILE

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.

Table 4-1: Types of END Identifiers 

Statement
END
Identifier
Example

ELSE BEGIN

ENDELSE 

IF (0) THEN A=1 ELSE BEGIN 
   A=2 
ENDELSE

FOR variable=init, limit DO BEGIN

ENDFOR 

FOR i=1,5 DO BEGIN 
   PRINT, array[i] 
ENDFOR

IF expression THEN BEGIN

ENDIF 

IF (0) THEN BEGIN 
   A=1 
ENDIF

REPEAT BEGIN

ENDREP 

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

LABEL: BEGIN

END 

LABEL1: BEGIN 
   PRINT, A 
END

case_expression: BEGIN

END 

CASE name OF 
'Moe': BEGIN 
         PRINT, 'Stooge' 
       END 
ENDCASE

switch_expression: BEGIN

END 

SWITCH name OF 
'Moe': BEGIN 
         PRINT, 'Stooge' 
       END 
ENDSWITCH

Note
CASE and SWITCH also have their own END identifiers. CASE should always be ended with ENDCASE, and SWITCH should always be ended with ENDSWITCH.

Version History

Original

Introduced

See Also

BREAK, CASE, CONTINUE, FOR, GOTO, IF...THEN...ELSE, REPEAT...UNTIL, SWITCH, WHILE...DO, Program Control (Application Programming)