Question

When creating a stored procedure, does the BEGIN/END block serve and purpose?

eg,

CREATE PROCEDURE SPNAME
AS
  SELECT * FROM TABLE

vs.

CREATE PROCEDURE SPNAME
AS
BEGIN
  SELECT * FROM TABLE
END

Answer 1

As indicated in the CREATE PROCEDURE documentation, the BEGIN/END is optional:

{ [ BEGIN ] sql_statement [;] [ …n ]
[ END ] }

One or more Transact-SQL
statements comprising the body of the
procedure. You can use the optional
BEGIN and END keywords to enclose the
statements. For information, see the
Best Practices, General Remarks, and
Limitations and Restrictions sections
that follow.

As a matter of personal preference, I always include them.