Serialize DateTime property to XML in C# -

i´m programming student , know if possible change format of date when serialize in xml file. date attribute of observablecollection of objects "loan", objects have 2 datetime properties, 1 of dates nullable object. serialize collection including date.

i obtain in xml file:

<outdate> 15-03-2014 </outdate> <!--if date null don´t want appear node--> 

and i´m getting this:

 <outdate>2014-03-15t00:00:00</outdate>  <indate xsi:nil="true" />  

this part of code project: part of class loan, mark serializable, looks this:

    private string isbn;     private string dni;     private datetime dateout;     private datetime? datein;         // setters , gettters , constructors  

this method serialize:

// pass 3 collections method loans, books , clients public void serializetoxml<t>(string file, string node, observablecollection<t> collection)         {             xmlrootattribute root = new xmlrootattribute(node);             xmlserializer serializer = new xmlserializer(typeof(observablecollection<t>), root);             using (filestream fs = new filestream(file, filemode.create))             {                 serializer.serialize(fs, collection);             }         } 

the call:

serializetoxml<loan>(_file, "library", manager.loanscollection); 

thnks.

probably simplest way achieve implement ixmlserializable interface on class instead. along following lines

public class loan : ixmlserializable {     public void writexml(xmlwriter writer)     {         if(datein.hasvalue)         {             writer.writeelementstring("datein", datein.value.tostring());         }     } } 

on read you'll need read element name, if it's datein set that, otherwise set appropriate value. checking see if exists in xml.