# Purpose/Function of Reference Tags

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/purpose-function-of-reference-tags/23008>\
**Category:** Ignition Early Access\
**Created:** [March 1, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/purpose-function-of-reference-tags/23008 "2019-03-01T22:20:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paul.bouillon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul.bouillon/32/7980_2.png) [@paul.bouillon](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul.bouillon)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/purpose-function-of-reference-tags/23008/5 "2019-03-05T16:01:30Z")

</div>

Right – so basically the difference is:

- Expression tags have more functionality (i.e. they can do what reference tags do, + more)
- Reference tags do not have an execution mode – they are basically “cast” functions (?)

If the reference tags are able to access the base tag’s history automatically… then I definitely see the value of them in that case

---

_[View the full topic](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/purpose-function-of-reference-tags/23008)._