Deserializing relative path XML

Question

In C# I would like to deserialize some Xml where the relative location is important. The following Xml is from a book standard called Onix:

<Stock>
  <OnHand>1</OnHand>
  <Proximity>xx</Proximity>
  <Reserved>2</Reserved>
  <Proximity>yy</Proximity>
  <OnOrder>3</OnOrder>
  <Proximity>zz</Proximity>
  <Cbo>4</Cbo>
  <Proximity>zz</Proximity>
</Stock>

As you can see every 2nd line is called "Proximity". These fields goes with the field above.

If all fields were mandatory then it would be no problem, and the code would look like this:

[XmlElement("OnHand", Order = 0)]public int OnHand { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Proximity", Order = 1)] public string OnHandProximity { get; set; }

[XmlElement("Reserved", Order = 2)] public int Reserved { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Proximity", Order = 3)] public string ReservedProximity { get; set; }

[XmlElement("OnOrder", Order = 4)] public int OnOrder { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Proximity", Order = 5)] public string OnOrderProximity { get; set; }

[XmlElement("CBO", Order = 6)] public int Cbo { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Proximity", Order = 7)] public string CboProximity { get; set; }

But the 4 proximity fields are tightly bound to the field before, and each pair of fields are not mandatory. E.g. you can get xml where the first 2 lines are missing.

Are there any Attributes intended for for these kinds of problems?

Answer 1

You were on your way with the Order attributes.
Mark the ints as int? and all fields as Nullable:

    [XmlElement("OnHand", Order = 0, IsNullable = true)]
    public int? OnHand { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("Proximity", Order = 1, IsNullable = true)]
    public string OnHandProximity { get; set; }

XmlSerializer should be able to deal with this.