Nested SELECT statements, often called subqueries, are a fundamental aspect of SQL. They enable you to perform more complex data retrieval and manipulation by incorporating the results of one query into another. Imagine you need to find all customers who live in the same city as a specific employee. A subquery can efficiently accomplish this. Subqueries can be used in various contexts, including WHERE clauses, FROM clauses, and even SELECT lists. The inner query (the subquery) is evaluated first, and its results are then used by the outer query. This allows for powerful filtering and data aggregation. Subqueries can be correlated, meaning they refer to columns in the outer query, or non-correlated, meaning they operate independently. Correlated subqueries are often more complex but can be necessary for specific tasks. Understanding subqueries is crucial for writing efficient and effective SQL queries.