"Dominic Messenger" <dmessenger@verdantsys.com> wrote in message
news:9d6bd82b.0407210845.228af00a@posting.google.com...
> I have several elements that have optional child elements and
> attributes that are xs:dates.
> I have been using System.DateTime and the XmlAttribute/XmlElement
> attributes, but these will never work as System.DateTime can never be
> null.
>
> So
> public class MyClass
> {
> [XmlAttribute("a")] public string a;
> [XmlElement(ElementName="b", DataType="date")] public DateTime b;
> }
>
> will return
> <MyClass>
> <b>0001-01-01</b>
> </MyClass>
>
> when I want an empty element.
> I have tried my own class (Date) that exposes an XmlText attribute:
>
> public class Date
> {
> private string dt;
> public Date() { }
> [XmlText()]
> public string Value { get { return dt;} set { dt=value;}}
> }
>
> and changed my class to:
>
> public class MyClass
> {
> [XmlAttribute("a")] public string a;
> [XmlElement(ElementName="b")] public Date b;
> }
>
> ...but the serializer then throws an exception :
>
> "Cannot serialize member 'b'. XmlAttribute/XmlText cannot be used to
> encode complex types."
>
> How do I achieve an optional xs:date using XmlSerializer ?

"Dominic Messenger" <dmessenger@verdantsys.com> wrote in message
news:%23vUgPCOcEHA.1656@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Thanks. This is just what I needed.
> Unfortunately, the XmlSerializer doesn't have a wealth of examples, so
> finding out these things takes time.
>
> Dominic
>
>
>
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