There are three simple operations that a database management language must be able to do. These are: 1. Insert a new record into a database table. 2. Delete a specific record from a database table. 3. Locate a specific record held in the database table. There are, of course, many other operations that a database management language must be able to perform, such as sorting and indexing, as have already been described. Also, the contents of certain fields have to be amended. However, the most important are those listed above.