I’m selecting data from tables in a SQL Server 2000 data base, and putting the result into a Dataset.

I’m writing the dataset out to a file in XML format using ds.WriteXml(myXmlWriter, XmlWriteMode.IgnoreSchema).



The table names are in singular (i.e. table customer is called “customer”), if I have more than one record in the table, I need to preceed my table name with a plural name (i.e. “customers”) in the instance of my XML file.



Example:

</customers>

</customer>SMITH</customer>

</customer>/JONES</customer>

<customers/>



This is my first time working w/XML file. Please advise me how to do the following:

How do I manipulate a dataset to insert a tag or node containing the plural table name (i.e. customers) if there is more than one record in the table?
Some of the columns contain NULL values, when my dataset is built, SQL Server 2000 omits the columns that have the value NULL, I need to include the null columns and have the ending node tag to write xsi:= nil.


Thanks for your help