Definition of Reference table

Question

I have difficult to understand the definition of "Reference table" from the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_table

Note the third paragraph:

In the context of database design a reference table is a table into which an enumerated set of possible values of a certain field data type is divested.

Somebody provide me with a better definition or explanation?

Answer 1

I have heard of these more commonly as "lookup tables", which are tables that are only used for looking up information and tend to be static (in that they do not change much or at all during the lifetime of the database).

Examples in many applications are country tables (which list country names and possibly the ISO 2 and 3 letter codes) and currency name tables.

These are tables that are used for looking up data for display purposes and normally have not other purpose (usually just an ID column and a column for the data).