Importing numeric fields with null values from XML

[hcorvallis]

I'm trying to import a data set from XML and have run into a bit of a problem. I have the tables all set up in an Access 2010 database. One table has a field that is a long integer field and is not required. So far so good. When I import the records, they all import, but I get records in the ImportErrors table saying "Supplied data does not match the datatype of field 'myfield'" for every record where the column myfield has a null. It is represented in the xml file as <myfield />. I don't get errors for fields in cases where a text field is null, just for the numeric (long integer) fields.



If I were the one who was going to be running the import in the future, I wouldn't worry about it, after all, the records actually look like I expect them to look. However other people will be running it and I would prefer that it not look like there's a problem with the import. Any ideas?

[Stingaway]

I would suggest a pre-processor that reads the xml file to find nulls in the myfield area and populates/replaces them with a space or a non-null character. You can then run the cleaned up (processed) file through the import routine and theoretically it should take care of the problem.