how to use Exposure setting?

I'm new to lot of things, this group, photography and genuinly taking up any hobby.
Anyways I came accross this feature called 'exposure compensation' and would like to know the use of it. A descriptive explanation would help along with examples if possible (to note I'm very new to photography)
Thanks a lot.

Well, your camera's meter is set up to take a perfectly exposed shot of a medioum-tone scene (for instance, a field of grass, nothing else). If you take a picture of that same field in the snow, it'll look grey. If you photograph a freshly paved, tarred road it'll also look grey. You use exposure compensation to make those extreme situations look "right". So, if you've got that snowy scene, which is underexposed, you'd use + Exposure Compensation (add light to make the scene light). If you have the dark scene, which is too light, you'd use - EC (subtract light to make the scene dark). Those are extreme cases, but that's why the EC setting allows you 1/3 stop increments from -2 stops (1/4 the light the meter thinks) to +2 stops (4x as much light as the meter wants to give you) - so you've got fine control.