representing null in xml

Hi,
I am generating an xml element that represents the data from a row in the database. My question is how do I represent null value inside an element. I would like to know if its "null" as a string or null.
<element>null</element>

Thanks
srini

I don't believe there is a null represention. I believe that a null value would have to represented by an empty string.

<element></element>

If you truly need to know if null is passed, another alternative is whatever builds the XML to create a string that represents NULL.

Example:
<element>%!!NULL!!%</element> <!-- null is represented by this crazy string that probably would never be found in the data -->