C/AL Compound Statements

A compound statement is one type of control structure in C/AL.

Using Compound Statements

In some cases, the C/AL syntax only lets you use a single statement. However, if you have to execute more than one simple statement, the statements can be written as a compound statement by enclosing the statements between the BEGIN and END keywords.

BEGIN  
  <Statement 1>;  
  <Statement 2>;  
  ..  
  <Statement n>;  
END  

The individual statements are separated by a semicolon. In C/AL, a semicolon is used to separate statements and not, as in other programming languages, as a terminator symbol for a statement. Nevertheless, an extra semicolon before an END does not cause an error because it is interpreted by the compiler as an empty statement.

Blocks

The BEGIN-END structure is also called a block. Blocks can be very useful to refer to the other control structures in C/AL.

When BEGIN follows THEN, ELSE, or DO, it should be on the same line and preceded by one space character.

Example

IF (x = y) AND (a = b) THEN BEGIN  
  x := a;  
  y := b;  
END;   

Example

IF (xxx = yyyyyyyyyy) AND   
   (aaaaaaaaaa = bbb)  
THEN BEGIN  
  x := a;  
  x := y;  
  a := y;  
END ELSE BEGIN  
  y := x;  
  y := a;  
END;  

See Also

C/AL Conditional Statements
C/AL Repetitive Statements
C/AL WITH Statements