Here's an example table with key/value data.
#+name: table
| keys | values |
|------+--------|
| foo  |      1 |
| bar  |      2 |
| baz  |      3 |
| qux  |      4 |

Here's a code block which can access the data in such a table by key.
This could be added to the library of babel to make it usable from any
Org-mode file.
#+name: by-key
#+begin_src sh :var data="" :var key=""
  echo "$data"|awk "{if(\$1 == \"$key\") print \$2}"
#+end_src

And here's an example usage.
#+headers: :results verbatim
#+begin_src sh :var foo=by-key(table,"foo") :var baz=by-key(table,"baz")
  cat <<EOF
  Pulling the data from the above table we find
  that foo is $foo and baz is $baz.
  EOF
#+end_src

#+RESULTS:
: Pulling the data from the above table we find
: that foo is 1 and baz is 3.