2

If I have the following simple class:

[Serializable]
public class Test
{
    public double a = 0.0000001;
}

When I return an object of this type from a .NET ASMX Web Service, the response will be:

<Test>
  <a>1E-07</a>
</Test>

which is, perhaps not coincidentally, the default behavior of 0.0000001.ToString(), though at least with ToString, I can specify the formatting parameters (in this case, I do not want exponential notation. In truth, I'm not even sure how I would hook this into an XmlSerializer I had complete control over it, much less just from within the attributes I could place on the return object.

Edit: I'd still very much like to keep the property in what I'm actually applying this to strongly-typed. Both 0.0000001 and 1E-7 are valid double representations in .NET, I just want to have it send things across the wire as the other one.

Marc Bollinger
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    If this value validates against the schema, then why would your clients care? Surely they can consume any value that validates? If they can't, then you need to change the schema to match what they can deal with. – John Saunders Mar 03 '11 at 23:15
  • Business Users vs. Developers. In addition to WS endpoints, we have tools that dump the data to CSV files, etc. There's usually not too much of a disconnect between the needs of the two, but I'm trying to reconcile visual aesthetics with development pragmatism. – Marc Bollinger Mar 03 '11 at 23:25
  • "Both 0.0000001 and 1E-7 are valid double representations in .NET" - but for a WS what's important is to have a valid xs:double representation. – Joe Mar 04 '11 at 08:31
  • According to the xsd documentation for double (http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#double) and decimal (http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#decimal), which further defines the lexical representation for doubles, this is still the case. – Marc Bollinger Mar 04 '11 at 17:01

2 Answers2

2

A simple approach would be to mark the strongly-typed property as ignored and provide another string property for the sake of XML serialization only. Within its getter you can apply formatting as you need, and parse it back in the setter.

Ondrej Tucny
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  • +1 for pointing that out, but I should have specified (and did so in an edit): if at all possible, I'd really like to keep this strongly-typed. The context is for a public API, so I'd like to retain typing as much as possible. – Marc Bollinger Mar 03 '11 at 23:11
1

A double will be sent across the wire using a representation that is compatible with the XML Schema xs:double datatype.

Any sensible client should be able to interpret this. If you have some specific reason for wanting a different representation, the only realistic solution is to use a string, formatted in the way you want.

Joe
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