>Aha! Now I see what your issue is. Before, I thought your hidden >component was enclosed in a <h:column>, and I couldn't understand why >you needed to change the row index. If you're only working within a >row, then by doing this, you'd avoid having to mess around with >setting the row index.
>Obviously, if you're validating across rows, then you'll need to do it >as you stated above. I'm glad you wrote - you just saved me bunches of coding time. Indeed, if I have the hidden component within the <h:column>, then I don't need to set the row index. My original struggle was where to bind the row UIInputs and the validation method - the solution is on the overall page backing bean, not on the row backing bean. -David- Here are the relevant code changes: play.jsp: <h:dataTable id="names" value="#{play.nameBBList}" var="name"> <h:column> <h:inputText id="first" value="#{name.first}" maxlength="10" size="10" binding="#{play.firstInput}" /> <h:inputText id="last" value="#{name.last}" maxlength="10" size="10" binding="#{play.lastInput}" /> <h:inputHidden id="datacheck" validator="#{play.validateNames}" value="dummy"/> </h:column> </h:dataTable> PlayBB.java: (no need to access UIData) public class PlayBB { private UIInput firstInput; private UIInput lastInput; private List<NameBB> nameBBList=new ArrayList<NameBB>(); public PlayBB(){ } public int getNumberOfNames() { return nameBBList.size(); } public List<NameBB> getNameBBList() { return nameBBList;} public String addNames() { ... } public void setFirstInput(UIInput firstInput) { this.firstInput=firstInput; } public UIInput getFirstInput() {return firstInput; } public void setLastInput(UIInput lastInput) { this.lastInput=lastInput; } public UIInput getLastInput() {return lastInput; } public void validateNames(FacesContext context, UIComponent toValidate, Object value) throws ValidatorException { // Now do validation comparing firstInput.getValue() and // lastInput.getValue() } } -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Binding-to-elements-in-DataTable-tf2041529.html#a5622138 Sent from the MyFaces - Users forum at Nabble.com.