EXECUTE <replaceable class="command">command-string</replaceable> <optional> INTO <optional>STRICT</optional> <replaceable>target</replaceable> </optional> <optional> USING <replaceable>expression</replaceable> <optional>, ... </optional> </optional>;
</synopsis>

     where <replaceable>command-string</replaceable> is an expression
     yielding a string (of type <type>text</type>) containing the
     command to be executed.  The optional <replaceable>target</replaceable>
     is a record variable, a row variable, or a comma-separated list of
     simple variables and record/row fields, into which the results of
     the command will be stored.  The optional <literal>USING</literal> expressions
     supply values to be inserted into the command.
    </para>

    <para>
     No substitution of <application>PL/pgSQL</application> variables is done on the
     computed command string.  Any required variable values must be inserted
     in the command string as it is constructed; or you can use parameters
     as described below.
    </para>

    <para>
     Also, there is no plan caching for commands executed via
     <command>EXECUTE</command>.  Instead, the command is always planned
     each time the statement is run. Thus the command
     string can be dynamically created within the function to perform
     actions on different tables and columns.
    </para>

    <para>
     The <literal>INTO</literal> clause specifies where the results of
     an SQL command returning rows should be assigned. If a row variable
     or variable list is provided, it must exactly match the structure
     of the command's results; if a
     record variable is provided, it will configure itself to match the
     result structure automatically. If multiple rows are returned,
     only the first will be assigned to the <literal>INTO</literal>
     variable(s). If no rows are returned, NULL is assigned to the
     <literal>INTO</literal> variable(s). If no <literal>INTO</literal>
     clause is specified, the command results are discarded.
    </para>

    <para>
     If the <literal>STRICT</literal> option is given, an error is reported
     unless the command produces exactly one row.
    </para>

    <para>
     The command string can use parameter values, which are referenced
     in the command as <literal>$1</literal>, <literal>$2</literal>, etc.
     These symbols refer to values supplied in the <literal>USING</literal>
     clause.  This method is often preferable to inserting data values
     into the command string as text: it avoids run-time overhead of
     converting the values to text and back, and it is much less prone
     to SQL-injection attacks since there is no need for quoting or escaping.
     An example is:
<programlisting>
EXECUTE 'SELECT count(*) FROM mytable WHERE inserted_by = $1 AND inserted &lt;= $2'
   INTO c
   USING checked_user, checked_date;
</programlisting>
    </para>

    <para>
     Note that parameter symbols can only be used for data values
     &mdash; if you want to use dynamically determined table or column
     names, you must insert them into the command string textually.
     For example, if the preceding query needed to be done against a
     dynamically selected table, you could do this:
<programlisting>
EXECUTE 'SELECT count(*) FROM '
    || quote_ident(tabname)
    || ' WHERE inserted_by = $1 AND inserted &lt;= $2'
   INTO c
   USING checked_user, checked_date;
</programlisting>
     A cleaner approach is to use <function>format()</function>'s <literal>%I</literal>
     specification to insert table or column names with automatic quoting:
<programlisting>
EXECUTE format('SELECT count(*) FROM %I '
   'WHERE inserted_by = $1 AND inserted &lt;= $2', tabname)
   INTO c
   USING checked_user, checked_date;
</programlisting>
     (This example relies on the SQL rule that string literals separated by a
     newline are implicitly concatenated.)
    </para>

    <para>
     Another restriction on parameter