begin                    Signals Start of Compound Statement

    The word BEGIN signals the start of a compound statement, which has
    the form:

         begin
           <statement>;
           <statement>;
           ... ;
           <statement>
         end;

    You can have any number of statements (zero or more) between BEGIN and
    END. Semicolons (';') are used to separate statements; a semicolon is
    not required (but is permitted) after the last statement. This entire
    construct is considered to be a single statement, thus allowing the
    use of multiple statements in FOR, WHILE, IF/THEN/ELSE, and CASE
    statements.