How do I stop an empty tag from being emitted by XmlSerializer?

Question

I have an object like this,

public class UserObj
{
    public string First {get; set;}
    public string Last  {get; set;}
    public addr Address {get; set;}

}

public class addr
{
    public street {get; set;}
    public town   {get; set;}
}

Now when I use XmlSerializer on it and street and town are empty I get this in the XML output,

 <Address />

Is there a way not to output this empty tag?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can implement a ShouldSerializeAddress method to decide whether or not the Address property should be serialized :

public bool ShouldSerializeAddress()
{
    return Address != null
        && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(Address.street)
        && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(Address.town);
}

If the method exists with this signature, the serializer will call it before serializing the property.

Alternatively, you can implement an AddressSpecified property which has the same role :

public bool AddressSpecified
{
    get
    {
        return Address != null
            && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(Address.street)
            && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(Address.town);
    }
}

Answer 2

You may implement IXmlSerializable and implement the serialization routine on your own. This way, you can avoid the element.

An example here: http://paltman.com/2006/jul/03/ixmlserializable-a-persistable-example/