>If you didn't need the schema in the XML, and if you allowed nulls, then you wouldn't have a problem because the DataSet.GetXML() method wouldn't include that empty column at all.
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>We use Typed DataSets, so we don't include the schema in any of our XML that gets passed around ... the XML only contains the data and when it gets read back into a Typed DataSet, that's what provides the schema. No need to include the schema in the XML. Columns in the data that contain DBNull.Value simply don't have a tag in the XML at all.
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>This probably doesn't help you much, since I assume you need the schema in the XML for some reason, but it's something to think about.

Yes, we cannot change the signature of the XML header that we send. I am trying to know if there is a safe way to parse such an XML for such purpose.