Sequences of EPL statements define the steps that are performed by a program. They are executed in the order they are written — sequentially from top to bottom and left to right within a statement block. (For expressions, the evaluation order is affected by parentheses, associativity, and operator precedence.)

The order in which statements are executed is called the flow of control or the control path. Some statements can contain other statements enclosed within their structure and can be used to execute statements conditionally, thus altering the normal control path. You can use the break, continue, and return statements to change the normal control path.

A block is zero or more statements enclosed in curly braces.

A block can be used wherever a single statement can be used. Variables declared in a block are referenceable only in the block in which they are declared, and only in statements that come after the variable’s declaration.