Question

i have issue returning a list in a web method. here is the code

<WebMethod()> _
Public Function getTags(para_parents As String) As List(Of getTypeDetailsByParentName_Result)()

    Dim context As New PPEntities

    Return context.getTypeDetailsByParentName(para_parents).ToList()

    context.Dispose()

End Function

the error is

Value of type ‘System.Collections.Generic.List(Of SaftyonRoad.getTypeDetailsByParentName_Result)’ cannot be converted to ‘1-dimensional array of System.Collections.Generic.List(Of SaftyonRoad.getTypeDetailsByParentName_Result)’

Answer 1

Your method declaration indicates you are returning an array of lists:

List(Of getTypeDetailsByParentName_Result)()

If you didn’t want to return an array of lists, remove the parenthesis at the end. Then you will just be returning a list.

---

On an unrelated note, your context.Dispose() will never get called because you leave the function before that with a Return. Not cleaning up resources correctly can lead to problems down the road. Typically you could handle this with a Using statement:

<WebMethod()> _
Public Function getTags(para_parents As String) As List(Of getTypeDetailsByParentName_Result)
    Using context As New PPEntities
        Return context.getTypeDetailsByParentName(para_parents).ToList()
    End Using
End Function