13.6 Compound Statements

13.6.1 BEGIN ... END Compound Statement

13.6.2 Statement Labels

13.6.3 DECLARE Statement

13.6.4 Variables in Stored Programs

13.6.5 Flow Control Statements

13.6.6 Cursors

13.6.7 Condition Handling

This section describes the syntax for the BEGIN ... END compound statement and other statements that can be used in the body of stored programs: Stored procedures and functions, triggers, and events. These objects are defined in terms of SQL code that is stored on the server for later invocation (see Chapter 23, Stored Objects).

A compound statement is a block that can contain other blocks; declarations for variables, condition handlers, and cursors; and flow control constructs such as loops and conditional tests.