A share; a portion. "When the swaggie (buyer of loot) gets his, we'll end up with peanuts (little) for our end."

- american underworld dictionary - 1950

Keyword used by some computer languages...

BASIC
The END command ends your program. Of course, you can also end running your program by "falling off" it; this is why
10 FOR I=1 TO 10
20 PRINT I
30 NEXT I
works.

But END does more than just make your program pretty. When the interpreter reaches it, it will stop. Even if END is not the last line of your program! So

10 FOR I=1 TO 10
20 GOSUB 1000
30 NEXT I
40 END
1000 PRINT I, I*I
1010 RETURN
will also work. Leaving off END in line 40 will print "11 121" again and crash, as the subroutine as line 1000 will be entered with no GOSUB.

Interestingly, some interpreters appeared to enforce having just a single END in your program. And even if you could have several, trying to say e.g.

700 IF J>I THEN END
could be interesting.

Pascal.
Pascal uses "end" as its block terminator. So you can say
(* Ensure i<=j *)
if i>j then begin
  t := i;
  i := j;
  j := t
end
assuming you've defined appropriate variables i,j,t.

Some places (like functions or procedures) need blocks, so they must end with "end".

The main program is a very special block. It must appear last in the file. And its end must end with a period:

program hello(output);
begin
  writeln('hello, world!')
end.
Perl, stealing from awk.
Perl executes END "blocks" (in fact subs of a very peculiar nature) at the "end" of execution. END blocks are the counterparts of BEGIN "blocks"; as such, whereas BEGIN blocks are executed before the main program in the order in which they appear, END blocks are executed after the main program in reverse order of appearance. awk does the same with END, and with the same apparent syntax, but in awk END is a pattern which matches only once, after the last line.

END blocks are useful for performing "last minute" tasks. You'll often find object serialization and other persistence of state information stored in an END block. One-liners and other programs using perl's incredible -p and -n options will use END to perform tasks after reading all input. For instance,

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -wanl
BEGIN {my $sum }
$sum += $F[2];
END { print $sum }
will print out the sum of the third column in the input. This example also uses -a for autosplit, -n to loop the main program over all lines, and -l to append the line ending to all lines printed.

END blocks can be nested, though this might not be such a great idea:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -wl
END {
  END {print 3}
  print 2;
}
print 1;

Fortran.
Fortran, recalling the good old days when it was ForTran or FORTRAN or WATFOR, COMMON BLOCKs were common, the real programmers were explicitly IMPLICIT and the value of PI is changed, puts an END "statement" at the end of every file "program module" (wimpy standards-compliant Fortran90es for C and C++'s translation unit).

Further trying to appease Djikstra (of all people), it also uses an "END" statement (note change of quotes!) to end SUBROUTINEs, FUNCTIONs, STRUCTUREs and Hollerith knows what other monstrosities they added when they took out arithmetic if. Of course, these are called by names like "END SUBROUTINE", "END FUNCTION", "END STRUCTURE" and "END THE INSANITY".

Regardless, execution of the program terminates at the first STOP statement encountered. You probably don't want to try falling off the end of a Fortran program, though this too will cause it to terminate.

PL/SQL (and other 4GLs).
Having designed and written some genuinely structured languages, the people at Oracle decided to steal syntax from...

...Fortran! (See above). So you have END PROCEDURE etc. in these languages too.

csh.
csh claims to be a UN*X shell with C-like syntax. It even uses "==" for equality. So naturally it doesn't bother with {...} for block structure. Oh no. It uses an "end" to terminate a block:
foreach x (a b c)
  foreach y (1 2 3)
    echo -n $x$y
  end
  echo ''
end

Thanks to C-Dawg and m_turner for reminding me of forgotten languages and "reminding" me of languages I'd never heard of.

End (?), n. [OE. & AS. ende; akin to OS. endi, D. einde, eind, OHG. enti, G. ende, Icel. endir, endi, Sw. ande, Dan. ende, Goth. andeis, Skr. anta. . Cf. Ante-, Anti-, Answer.]

1.

The extreme or last point or part of any material thing considered lengthwise (the extremity of breadth being side); hence, extremity, in general; the concluding part; termination; close; limit; as, the end of a field, line, pole, road; the end of a year, of a discourse; put an end to pain; -- opposed to beginning, when used of anything having a first part.

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. Eccl. vii. 8.

2.

Point beyond which no procession can be made; conclusion; issue; result, whether successful or otherwise; conclusive event; consequence.

My guilt be on my head, and there an end. Shak.

O that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come! Shak.

3.

Termination of being; death; destruction; extermination; also, cause of death or destruction.

Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end. Pope.

Confound your hidden falsehood, and award Either of you to be the other's end. Shak.

I shall see an end of him. Shak.

4.

The object aimed at in any effort considered as the close and effect of exertion; ppurpose; intention; aim; as, to labor for private or public ends.

Losing her, the end of living lose. Dryden.

When every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end. Coleridge.

5.

That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap; as, odds and ends.

I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ, And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. Shak.

6. Carpet Manuf.

One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a Brussels carpet.

An end. (a) On end; upright; erect; endways. Spenser (b) To the end; continuously. [Obs.] Richardson. -- End bulb Anat., one of the bulblike bodies in which some sensory nerve fibers end in certain parts of the skin and mucous membranes; -- also called end corpuscles. -- End fly, a bobfly. -- End for end, one end for the other; in reversed order. -- End man, the last man in a row; one of the two men at the extremities of a line of minstrels. -- End on Naut., bow foremost. -- End organ Anat., the structure in which a nerve fiber ends, either peripherally or centrally. -- End plate Anat., one of the flat expansions in which motor nerve fibers terminate on muscular fibers. -- End play Mach., movement endwise, or room for such movement. -- End stone Horol., one of the two plates of a jewel in a timepiece; the part that limits the pivot's end play. -- Ends of the earth, the remotest regions of the earth. -- In the end, finally. Shak. -- On end, upright; erect. -- To the end, in order. Bacon. -- To make both ends meet, to live within one's income. Fuller. -- To put an end to, to destroy.

 

© Webster 1913.


End (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ended; p. pr. & vb. n. Ending.]

1.

To bring to an end or conclusion; to finish; to close; to terminate; as, to end a speech.

"I shall end this strife."

Shak.

On the seventh day God ended his work. Gen. ii. 2.

2.

To form or be at the end of; as, the letter k ends the word back.

3.

To destroy; to put to death.

"This sword hath ended him."

Shak.

To end up, to lift or tilt, so as to set on end; as, to end up a hogshead.

 

© Webster 1913.


End, v. i.

To come to the ultimate point; to be finished; to come to a close; to cease; to terminate; as, a voyage ends; life ends; winter ends.

 

© Webster 1913.

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