I am trying to write a webmethod which would look a bit like this:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
private string ConnectionString
    {
        get { return
ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["DBConn"].ConnectionString; }
    }

public string[] GetCompletionList_LN(String prefixText)
    {
        using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
        {
            SqlCommand command = new
SqlCommand("sp_DTDS_GetEmployeesByLastName", conn);
            SqlParameter param1 = new SqlParameter("@Name", SqlDbType.VarChar);
            param1.Value = prefixText;
            command.Parameters.Add(param1);

            SqlParameter param1 = new SqlParameter("@Counter",
SqlDbType.VarChar);
            param2.Size = 3;
            param2.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
            command.Parameters.Add(param2);

            conn.Open();

            SqlDataReader dtr;
            dtr = command.ExecuteReader();

            List<String> items = new List<String>();
            try
                {
                    while (dtr.Read())
                    {
                        items.Add(dtr(0).ToString);
                    }
                }
            finally
            {
                conn.Close();
            }

            Return items.ToArray();
        }
    }

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had
    SqlParameter param1 = New SqlParameter("@Name",
SqlDbType.VarChar);
instead of
    SqlParameter param1 = new SqlParameter("@Name",
SqlDbType.VarChar);
with "New" instead of "new"
so the compiler complained about
    ; expected
(?????)

What was the keyword "New" supposed to be, in the compiler's mind ? A
tulip ? Of course New is new !!! I have lost three hours hunting this
down ! This, or course, triggered other stupid error messages
downstream, like, for instance,

    conn.Close();
was saying
    Invalid token '(' in class, struct, or interface member
declaration
Huh ?

Anyhoo. I still have one problem - the line
    Return items.ToArray();
says
    ; expected
and also typing "items" + dot does not trigger any type of
autocomplete.
Is there smething wrong with
    List<String> items = new List<String>();
???

Please, what am I doing wrong here ? This makes me pull my hair out,
and I don't have much left.
I am a VBnet programmer, and this case-sensitivity in C# is the most
stupid thing I've met.

Thank you
Alex.