This video explains how to use the SELECT statement of the Structured Query Language (SQL). It is the first in a series about a subset of SQL known as the Data Manipulation Language (DML), which is used to work with the data in database tables. It includes examples of the use of a column aliases, the WHERE clause, including relational and logical operators, and fuzzy matching with the wildcard operator Like and the percentage symbol %. It also explains how to use the order by clause to sort the results of a query, including the keywords asc and desc.