Can't dynamically set component identifier - jsf-2

Question

I have a p:inputText field inside a dataTable and I'm trying to set its identifier dynamically.
However I get the following error:
component identifier must not be a zero-length String
None of the String used as id are null or of zero-length
<h:form id="updateform">
<p:dataTable id="updatetable" value="#{EditingBean.row}" var="column"
style="width: 983px; overflow-x: auto; white-space: normal;">
<f:facet name="header">
<h:outputText value="#{EditingBean.currentStatement.statementName}" />
</f:facet>
<p:column rendered="#{column.display}" style="white-space: normal;">
<h:outputText value="#{column.alias}" />
</p:column>
<p:column rendered="#{column.display}" style="white-space: normal;">
<p:inputText id="#{column.name}" value="#{column.value}" />
</p:column>
<f:facet name="footer" style="text-align: right;">
<h:commandButton value="Update" action="#{EditingBean.update()}"
ajax="false" />
</f:facet>
</p:dataTable>
</h:form>

Answer 1

The id attribute must be set during view build time.
However, as #{column} is declared as <h:dataTable var>, it's only available during view render time. As it runs after view build time, it's thus null during view build time.
I'm not sure about the concrete functional requirement for which you thought that doing this would be the right solution. The code is not self-documenting enough to properly guess it. So it's hard to give a suitable answer. In any case, you've basically 2 options:
Use an iterating tag which runs during view build time, such as JSTL <c:forEach>.
<c:forEach items="#{EditingBean.row}" var="column">
...
<p:inputText id="#{column.name}" ... />
You perhaps actually don't need a dynamic ID at all. Give it a fixed ID.
<p:inputText id="name" ... />
JSF will already take care of generating unique IDs (prefixed with row index) in HTML output. Rightclick page and do View Source to see it yourself.
See also:
JSTL in JSF2 Facelets... makes sense?