> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.santesuite.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.santesuite.org/developers/applets/business-intelligence-bi-assets/bi-asset-definitions/reference-data.md).

# Reference Data

{% hint style="info" %}
This page documents a feature in SanteDB 3.0
{% endhint %}

Reference data sets are a specialized `<dataSource>` which may be placed into a report, or defined on their own which contain static comma-separated-values (CSV) of data which is to be referenced. Reference data acts the same way that regular SQL [Queries](/developers/applets/business-intelligence-bi-assets/bi-asset-definitions/queries.md) or [Views](/developers/applets/business-intelligence-bi-assets/bi-asset-definitions/views.md) work.

```xml
<BiReferenceDataSourceDefinition xmlns="http://santedb.org/bi" 
    name="friendly name"
    id="dotted.id.of.refset">
    <![CDATA[Column1, Column2, Column3,
    R1_C1, R1_C2, R1_C3
    R2_C1, R2_C2, R2_C3
    ]]>
</BiReferenceDataSourceDefinition>
```