XmlSerializer: The string '' is not a valid AllXsd value

Question

I\'m getting this message,\"The string \'7/22/2006 12:00:00 AM\' is not a valid AllXsd value.\", when deserializing an XML, the element contains a date, this is the property

Answer 1

AllocationDate is a mandatory field but can be supplied as blank which is handled by representing it by AllocationDateString:

    private DateTime? _allocationDate;

    [XmlIgnore]
    public DateTime? AllocationDate
    {
        get { return _allocationDate; }
        set { _allocationDate = value; }
    }

    [XmlAttribute("AllocationDateTime")]
    public string AllocationDateTimeString
    {
        get
        {
            return _allocationDate.HasValue ? XmlConvert.ToString(_allocationDate.Value, XmlDateTimeSerializationMode.Unspecified)
            : string.Empty;
        }
        set
        {
            _allocationDate = !string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) ? XmlConvert.ToDateTime(value, XmlDateTimeSerializationMode.Unspecified) : (DateTime?)null;
        }
    }