# 43.4. Expressions

All expressions used in PL/pgSQL statements are processed using the server's main SQL executor. For example, when you write a PL/pgSQL statement like

```
IF expression THEN ...
```

PL/pgSQL will evaluate the expression by feeding a query like

```
SELECT expression
```

to the main SQL engine. While forming the `SELECT` command, any occurrences of PL/pgSQL variable names are replaced by query parameters, as discussed in detail in [Section 43.11.1](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/plpgsql-implementation.html#PLPGSQL-VAR-SUBST). This allows the query plan for the `SELECT` to be prepared just once and then reused for subsequent evaluations with different values of the variables. Thus, what really happens on first use of an expression is essentially a `PREPARE` command. For example, if we have declared two integer variables `x` and `y`, and we write

```
IF x < y THEN ...
```

what happens behind the scenes is equivalent to

```
PREPARE statement_name(integer, integer) AS SELECT $1 < $2;
```

and then this prepared statement is `EXECUTE`d for each execution of the `IF` statement, with the current values of the PL/pgSQL variables supplied as parameter values. Normally these details are not important to a PL/pgSQL user, but they are useful to know when trying to diagnose a problem. More information appears in [Section 43.11.2](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/plpgsql-implementation.html#PLPGSQL-PLAN-CACHING).

Since an *`expression`* is converted to a `SELECT` command, it can contain the same clauses that an ordinary `SELECT` would, except that it cannot include a top-level `UNION`, `INTERSECT`, or `EXCEPT` clause. Thus for example one could test whether a table is non-empty with

```
IF count(*) > 0 FROM my_table THEN ...
```

since the *`expression`* between `IF` and `THEN` is parsed as though it were `SELECT count(*) > 0 FROM my_table`. The `SELECT` must produce a single column, and not more than one row. (If it produces no rows, the result is taken as NULL.)