Validating XML with empty dateTime & numeric elements

[craig.wagner]

I have an element in my schema defined as follows:

<xs:element name="BillingDate" type="xs:dateTime" nillable="true"
minOccurs="0"/>

I use the schema to validate incoming documents using an
XmlValidatingReader in .NET 1.1.

If the document contains the above element with no data, for example:

<BillingDate></BillingDate>
<BillingDate/>

The validation throws an exception on this element telling me it
contains data that doesn't conform to the type. That kind of makes
sense, because the value in the above case is an empty string, and
that's not a valid date.

I can change the above tags to one of the following and then it passes
validation:

<BillingDate xsi:nil="true"></BillingDate>
<BillingDate xsi:nil="true"/>

I can also get rid of the element completely and it passes validation
(because minOccurs="0").

However, I would prefer to not have to go through every document
looking for empty tags and adding the xsi:nil="true" attribute or
removing them from the document.

The same thing happens with elements defined as numeric types (e.g.
xs:int).

Is there any way (other than the above identified solutions) to get the
validation process to pass these elements without an exception?

[Stan Kitsis [MSFT]]

Craig,

The following should do what you need. This example uses a union of
dateTime type and an empty string type.

<xs:element name="BillingDate" type="nillableDate" minOccurs="0"/>

<xs:simpleType name="nillableDate">

<xs:union memberTypes="xs:dateTime emptyString"/>

</xs:simpleType>

<xs:simpleType name="emptyString">

<xs:restriction base="xs:string">

<xs:length value="0"/>

</xs:restriction>

</xs:simpleType>
--
Stan Kitsis
Program Manager, XML Technologies
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
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<cr**********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...

I have an element in my schema defined as follows:

<xs:element name="BillingDate" type="xs:dateTime" nillable="true"
minOccurs="0"/>

I use the schema to validate incoming documents using an
XmlValidatingReader in .NET 1.1.

If the document contains the above element with no data, for example:

<BillingDate></BillingDate>
<BillingDate/>

The validation throws an exception on this element telling me it
contains data that doesn't conform to the type. That kind of makes
sense, because the value in the above case is an empty string, and
that's not a valid date.

I can change the above tags to one of the following and then it passes
validation:

<BillingDate xsi:nil="true"></BillingDate>
<BillingDate xsi:nil="true"/>

I can also get rid of the element completely and it passes validation
(because minOccurs="0").

However, I would prefer to not have to go through every document
looking for empty tags and adding the xsi:nil="true" attribute or
removing them from the document.

The same thing happens with elements defined as numeric types (e.g.
xs:int).

Is there any way (other than the above identified solutions) to get the
validation process to pass these elements without an exception?

[craig.wagner]

That worked perfectly. Thanks.