Final answer:
The SELECT statement, often combined with a WHERE clause, is commonly used to identify records to be deleted in a database. Afterwards, a DELETE statement is used to remove those records.
Step-by-step explanation:
When managing a database, the query option most commonly used to find records that need to be deleted is the SELECT statement.
This statement, often used in conjunction with a WHERE clause, allows you to specify criteria to identify the records that need to be removed.
For example, in SQL (Structured Query Language), you would use SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE condition; to locate the records.
After identifying the records, you would use the DELETE statement to remove them from the database, following a similar conditional pattern to ensure only the intended records are deleted. It's crucial to be careful when performing delete operations to avoid accidentally removing essential data.