what is the purpose of the reuse identifier?

gistfile1.txt

The reuse identifier is associated with a UITableViewCell object that the table-view’s delegate creates with the intent to reuse it as the basis (for performance reasons) for multiple rows of a table view. It is assigned to the cell object in initWithFrame:reuseIdentifier: and cannot be changed thereafter. A UITableView object maintains a queue (or list) of the currently reusable cells, each with its own reuse identifier, and makes them available to the delegate in the dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier: method.