I'm using Simple Binary Encoding (SBE) and noticed that when a field (e.g., int32) is not explicitly set by the sender, the decoder still returns a default value (0 for numeric types). This makes it impossible to distinguish between:

A field that was explicitly set to 0, and

A field that was never set (should be treated as "null" or "absent").

Example Scenario:

Schema Definition:

<field name="price" type="int32" presence="optional"/>
Decoding Result:

If the sender omits price, the decoder still returns price = 0.

If the sender sets price = 0, the decoder also returns price = 0.

Is this the expected behavior of SBE?

What is the recommended way to detect if a field was truly "not set" (absent) vs. "set to 0"?

Are there runtime checks (e.g., hasField() methods) generated by SBE?