Hi Robb,

Currently we are looking for someone to help you on this issue, we will
reply to you ASAP. Thanks for your understanding.

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Hi Robb,

As far as I know, there is no way to send a null for value types in .NET
1.1, because the value types cannot be null. In .NET 2.0 there will be
nullable types available. But I don't think java will support this. So,
currently, your resolution seems to be fine, and I don't have better ones
than yours.

Kevin Yu

A better solution might be to serialize this float as a string and do your
own mapping for null values internally as follows:

       private float price;
       private bool hasPrice;

       [XmlElement("Price")]  // this is the serializable property
       public string PriceString {
           get {
               if (!hasPrice) return null;
               return price.ToString();
           }
           set {
               this.Price = float.Parse(value);
           }
       }

       [XmlIgnore]        // this is not serialized, but it is what you use
in your program.
       public float Price {
           get { return this.price; }
           set { this.price = value; hasPrice  = true; }
       }

If you are using .NET 2.0 then you can simplify this further using the new
nullable type operator "?" as follows:

       private float? price;

       [XmlElement("Price")]  // this is the serializable property
       public string PriceString {
           get {
               if (!price.HasValue) return null;
               return price.Value.ToString();
           }
           set {
               this.Price = float.Parse(value);
           }
       }

       [XmlIgnore]        // this is not serialized, but it is what you use
in your program.
       public float Price {
           get { return this.price.HasValue ? this.price.Value : 0; }
           set { this.price = value;  }
       }

The XmlSerializer in .NET 2.0 also handles the nullable type, but it writes
out <Price xsi:nil="true" />.  If this is ok then you can simplify it even
further and write:

       public float? Price;

and be done!