title: How to use LookUp tables in oracle?
body: <p>In my database, many tables have the 'State' field, representing the state that, that particular entity falls in.  I have been told that we should use Lookup tables for this kind of thing, but I am unsure of the exact mechanism. Can someone clarify these points?</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>How is the integrity maintained? (i.e. how do I make sure that only the values from the state table go into the other tables?)</p></li>
  <li><p>Does the state name go into the other tables, or does the state id from the state table go into the other tables?</p></li>
  </ol>