c# - Creating a Service To Return a List -

within service1.svc file have following;

[operationcontract] public list<accounts> getallaccounts() {     string conn = "......";     list<accounts> accs = new list<accounts>();      sqlconnection _con = new sqlconnection(conn);     sqlcommand sc = new sqlcommand("sql query....", _con);     sqldatareader reader;      _con.open();     reader = sc.executereader();     while (reader.read()) { accs.add(new accounts() { name = reader["name"].tostring(), qty = convert.toint32(reader["qty"]), weight = convert.todecimal(reader["weight"]), value = convert.todecimal(reader["value"]) }); }     _con.close();      return accs.tolist(); }  public class accounts {     public string name { get; set; }     public int qty { get; set; }     public decimal weight { get; set; }     public decimal value { get; set; } } 

i know sql correct , have printed contents of list screen ensure data there, problem have when try run service in browser - fails.

now, believe because iservice.cs conflicting returned 'list' control. error is;

my service1.getallaccounts() method cannot implement iservice1.getallaccounts() because doesn't have matching return type of 'system.....list'.

iservice1.cs;

[servicecontract]     public interface iservice1 {      [operationcontract]     list<accounts> getallaccounts(); }  public class accounts {     public string name { get; set; }     public int qty { get; set; }     public decimal weight { get; set; }     public decimal value { get; set; } } 

this issue sounds simple, i'm new c#, advise?

add [datacontract] , [datamember] attribute accounts class

[datacontract] public class accounts {     [datamember]     public string name { get; set; }     [datamember]     public int qty { get; set; }     [datamember]     public decimal weight { get; set; }     [datamember]     public decimal value { get; set; } } 

also, client code uses service should configured receive collection type system.collection.generic.list

right click service reference , select "configure service reference". in collection type combo select system.collection.generic.list instead of default array

just completeness, others have said, makes no have 2 class identical names accounts. confuse compiler point receive error. , have created list variable so, return variable.