# Lookups

{% hint style="info" %}
**Introduction**

Besides transforming the data, you may need to search and bring data from other sources. Let us look at the following examples:

* You have some product codes and you want to look for their descriptions in an Excel file
* You have a value and want to get all products whose price is below that value from a database

Searching for information in databases, text files, web services, and so on, is a very common task, and Kettle has several steps for doing it.
{% endhint %}

<figure><img src="/files/FHHpcOeIcuhNrFJJx0rk" alt=""><figcaption><p>Lookup / List tables</p></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="info" %}
For instance, if your database is about sales, you probably have a Customers table and an Orders table, each with its own attributes resolved through a Foreign Key. The lookup tables are usually very small, with just a handful of rows in them.
{% endhint %}

***


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://academy.pentaho.com/pentaho-data-integration/data-integration/enrich-data/lookups.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.