Referencing a text like a hyperreference inside a document

Question

I have a table with many entries and I want to reference the key so another person can quickly look up what the key means.

Here is some pseudocode:

Table
snippet1\label{?key1} & longexplanatory text
snippet2\label{?key2} & longexplanatory text
snippet3\label{?key3} & longexplanatory text

connect \ref{key1} with \ref{key13}

After compilation I want the text to read

connect snippet1 with snippet3

The reader should be able to quickly jump to the table when clicking on snippet-N.

Answer 1

The following uses \refstepcounter (instead of the internal \@currentlabel) of a dummy counter to make the text to something that can be referenced. \raisebox moves \refstepcounter a bit to move the anchor position, if package hyperref is used. At the place of \refstepcounter hyperref sets the anchor.

\documentclass{article}
\newcounter{keylabel}
\newcommand*{\keylabel}[2]{%
  \leavevmode
  \raisebox{2ex}[0pt][0pt]{%
    \renewcommand*{\thekeylabel}{#1}%
    \refstepcounter{keylabel}%
    \label{#2}%
  }%
  #1%
}

\usepackage{hyperref}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{@{}ll@{}}
\keylabel{snippet1}{key1} & longexplanatory text\\
\keylabel{snippet2}{key2} & longexplanatory text\\
\keylabel{snippet3}{key3} & longexplanatory text\\
\end{tabular}

connect \ref{key1} with \ref{key3}
\end{document}