The IF statement in SQL is a conditional statement that lets you execute different SQL statements based on whether a specified condition is true or false. It's a fundamental control flow mechanism, enabling you to create dynamic and responsive queries. While SQL doesn't have a direct equivalent of a procedural IF-THEN-ELSE construct like some programming languages, the CASE statement is often used to achieve similar results. This is particularly useful when you need to perform different actions depending on the values in your database. For example, you might want to apply different discounts based on customer type or display different messages based on the outcome of a calculation. The CASE statement provides a flexible way to handle these scenarios. It's important to note that the IF statement is not directly supported in standard SQL. Instead, the CASE statement is used for conditional logic. The CASE statement allows you to evaluate different conditions and execute corresponding SQL statements.