In the database language PASCAL/R, the programming language PASCAL and concepts based on the relational data model are integrated. The paper investigates transformation strategies used in the PASCAL/R system to evaluate queries with existential and universal quantifiers. Intermediate data structures are described using a high-level language tool called a reference to a selected variable. The predicate calculus approach used in PASCAL/R offers new insight into recently proposed query optimization techniques and allows some of them to be extended.