Thank you for the explanation of BEGIN/END and correction of my use of RTRIM().

>1. You don't need BEGIN/END for one statement but you can wrap even one statement in BEGIN/END. I often do for consistency or if I expect to use more than one statement in the future
>2. Yes, you have to use BEGIN/END for more than one statement otherwise only first one of the block after IF will be executed.
>
>BTW, LEN() function retuns length of it's parameter w/o trailing spaces so RTRIM() in len(rtrim(@FoundValue)) is redundant. IOW len(rtrim(@FoundValue)) returns the same result as len(@FoundValue)
>
>>
>>I want to be sure I understand the use of BEGIN / END with IF statement in a stored procedure.
>>
>>Here is how I understand it:
>>
>>1. If there is only one statement after the IF condition, I don't need to have BEGIN / END. That is, this one statement after IF will be executed.
>>
>>2. But if there is more than one statement after IF, I must have these statements enclosed with BEGIN / END? Here is an example:
>>
>>

>>if @SomeVar = 1
>>   BEGIN
>>   select @FoundValue = column_name from table1 where 'some condition'
>>   if len(rtrim(@FoundValue)) > 0
>>      set @Var2 = @FoundValue
>>   END
>>

>>
>>That is, I must have the BEGIN and END above to make sure all lines after the first IF are executed only if @SomeVar =1 ?