# apex:facet

A placeholder for content that's rendered in a specific part of the parent component, such as the header or footer of an `<apex:dataTable>`.

Use this component to get user input for a controller method that does not correspond to a field on an sObject. Only `<apex:inputField>` and `<apex:outputField>` can be used with sObject fields.

An `<apex:facet>` component can only exist in the body of a parent component if the parent supports facets. The name of the facet component must match one of the pre-defined facet names on the parent component. This name determines where the content of the facet component is rendered. The order in which a facet component is defined within the body of a parent component doesn't affect the appearance of the parent component.

See `<apex:dataTable>` for an example of facets.

**Note:** Although you can't represent an `<apex:facet>` directly in Apex, you can specify it on a dynamic component that has the facet. For example:

`Component.apex.dataTable dt = new Component.apex.dataTable(); dt.facets.header = 'Header Facet';`

## Example

```apex
<!-- For this example to render properly, you must associate the Visualforce page
with a valid account record in the URL.
For example, if 001D000000IRt53 is the account ID, the resulting URL should be:
https://MyDomain_login_URL/apex/myPage?id=001D000000IRt53
See the Visualforce Developer's Guide Quick Start Tutorial for more information. -->

<!-- Shows a two column table of contacts associated with the account.
The account column headers are controlled by the facets.-->

<apex:page standardController="Account">
    <apex:pageBlock title="Contacts">
        <apex:dataTable value="{!account.Contacts}" var="contact" cellPadding="4" border="1">
            <apex:column >
                <apex:facet name="header">Name</apex:facet>
                        {!contact.Name}
            </apex:column>
            <apex:column >
                <apex:facet name="header">Phone</apex:facet>
                        {!contact.Phone}
            </apex:column>
        </apex:dataTable>
    </apex:pageBlock>
</apex:page>
```

## Attributes

| Attribute Name | Attribute Type | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              | Required? | API Version | Access |
| -------------- | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------- | ----------- | ------ |
| `name`         | String         | The name of the facet to be rendered. This name must match one of the pre-defined facet names on the parent component and determines where the content of the facet component is rendered. For example, the dataTable component includes facets named "header", "footer", and "caption". | Yes       | 10.0        | global |

**See Also**

- [apex:dataTable](/docs/platform/salesforce-pages-developers-guide/guide/pages-compref-datatable.md)
- [Best Practices for Using Component Facets](/docs/platform/salesforce-pages-developers-guide/guide/pages-compref-additional-facet.md)