Empress provides a set of Database Manipulation routines for direct access to database structures using the C programming language. This interface provides faster execution times than any of the query language interfaces, since the parser is not invoked for each call. They also provide much greater control over what is done with the retrieved data, allowing you to perform complex arithmetic functions, generate custom-defined report formats, develop high-level user interfaces, and so on. The mr routines are grouped as follows:

1. Open Routines
2. Lock Routines
3. Allocate Space Routines
4. Attribute Descriptor Routines
5. Filling Records Routines
6. Insert Routines
7. Delete Routines
8. Update Routines
9. Initialize Retrieval Routines
10. Retrieval Routines
11. Compare Routines
12. Input Conversion Routines
13. Qualification Routines
14. Transaction Routines
15. Expression Routines
16. Error Handling Routines