AQL commands essentially break down into these categories:
| Category | Commands |
|---|---|
| Output-producing | sort command |
| List-producing | nselect command nselect command |
| Statistical | count command check-sum command |
| Tape-handling | t-dump command t-load command |
| File-analysis | hash-test command |
| Internal (or copy) format | list-item command (Access Query Language) |
| Label-like-producing | list-label command |
| File-updating | reformat command |