BEGIN#

Synopsis#

BEGIN
  [ DECLARE ... ]
  statements
END

Description#

Marks the start and end of a block in a SQL routine. BEGIN can be used wherever a statement can be used to group multiple statements together and to declare variables local to the block. A typical use case is as first statement within a FUNCTION. Blocks can also be nested.

After the BEGIN keyword, you can add variable declarations using [/routines/declare] statements, followed by one or more statements that define the main body of the routine, separated by ;. The following statements can be used:

Examples#

The following example computes the value 42:

FUNCTION meaning_of_life()
  RETURNS tinyint
  BEGIN
    DECLARE a tinyint DEFAULT 6;
    DECLARE b tinyint DEFAULT 7;
    RETURN a * b;
  END

Further examples of varying complexity that cover usage of the BEGIN statement in combination with other statements are available in the SQL routines examples documentation.

See also#