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From: RG on 8 Jun 2010 09:13
I have seen in a couple of places that the use of begin and end block in a
single statement is discouraged
Outside of extra 2 lines of code, is there an issue in enclosing a single
statement with begin and end block?


Thanks in advance


From: Erland Sommarskog on 8 Jun 2010 10:14
RG (nobody(a)nowhere.com) writes:
> I have seen in a couple of places that the use of begin and end block in a
> single statement is discouraged
> Outside of extra 2 lines of code, is there an issue in enclosing a single
> statement with begin and end block?

No. My personal style is that if the statement is a single line, I don't
use BEGIN END:

IF @dothis = 1
EXEC dothis @par1

But if the statement extends over several lines, I do use BEGIN END:

IF @update = 1
BEGIN
UPDATE tbl
SET somecol = 11
WHERE col = @keyval
END

A good argument for always using BEGIN END is that avoids silly errors when
changing code. Assume in the example above that a second procedure needs
to be called:

IF @dothis = 1
EXEC dothis @par1
EXEC dothat @par2



--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel(a)sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books.mspx
From: --CELKO-- on 8 Jun 2010 11:02
>> I have seen in a couple of places that the use of begin and end block in a single statement is discouraged. Outside of extra 2 lines of code, is there an issue in enclosing a single statement with begin and end block? <<

It will not make any performance difference. The use of the redundant
blocking go back to Algol and PL/I on punch cards. It was easier to
add or remove cards when doing maintenance or debugging.

Today, you hit the "magic button" in a text editor and pretty print
your program after you make changes.

Also modern programming languages have closing keywords, such as SQL/
PSM with the ADA style "IF.. THEN.. ELSE.. END IF;" constructs.

I don't like using them myself. I think it misleads the eye, since a
BEGIN tells me to look for multiple statements, and makes me want to
see a comment to explain what the block does.
From: Jellifish on 8 Jun 2010 14:22
PUNCHED CARD ALERT!!!!
PUNCHED CARD ALERT!!!!
PUNCHED CARD ALERT!!!!

"--CELKO--" <jcelko212(a)earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:46e100fb-636c-4fb2-b8ef-2f138ec01e82(a)i28g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
>>> I have seen in a couple of places that the use of begin and end block in
>>> a single statement is discouraged. Outside of extra 2 lines of code, is
>>> there an issue in enclosing a single statement with begin and end block?
>>> <<
>
> It will not make any performance difference. The use of the redundant
> blocking go back to Algol and PL/I on punch cards. It was easier to
> add or remove cards when doing maintenance or debugging.
>
> Today, you hit the "magic button" in a text editor and pretty print
> your program after you make changes.
>
> Also modern programming languages have closing keywords, such as SQL/
> PSM with the ADA style "IF.. THEN.. ELSE.. END IF;" constructs.
>
> I don't like using them myself. I think it misleads the eye, since a
> BEGIN tells me to look for multiple statements, and makes me want to
> see a comment to explain what the block does.


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