I'm developing a C#/SQL web app in VS 2008 but for some reason I have one extra DropDownList. The very first dropdownlist displaying is empty. Can you help me identify the cause of this behavior? I'm baffled!

An excerpt of my code is below.

private DropDownList[] newcol;

// Add DropDownList Control to Placeholder
private DropDownList[] CreateDropDownLists()
{
    DropDownList[] dropDowns = new DropDownList[NumberOfControls];

    for (int counter = 0; counter < NumberOfControls; counter++)
    {
        DropDownList ddl = new DropDownList();
        SqlDataReader dr2 = ADONET_methods.DisplayTableColumns(targettable);
        ddl.ID = "DropDownListID" + counter.ToString();

        int NumControls = targettable.Length;
        DataTable dt = new DataTable();
        dt.Load(dr2);

        ddl.DataValueField = "COLUMN_NAME";
        ddl.DataTextField = "COLUMN_NAME";
        ddl.DataSource = dt;
        ddl.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandler(ddlList_SelectedIndexChanged);
        ddl.DataBind();

        ddl.AutoPostBack = true;
        ddl.EnableViewState = true; //Preserves View State info on Postbacks
        //ddlList.Style["position"] = "absolute";
        //ddl.Style["top"] = 80 + "px";
        //ddl.Style["left"] = 0 + "px";
        dr2.Close();

        dropDowns[counter] = ddl;
    }
    return dropDowns;
}

protected void ddlList_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    DropDownList ddl = (DropDownList)sender;
    string ID = ddl.ID;
}

//Create display panel
private void CreateDisplayPanel()
{
    btnSubmit.Style.Add("top", "auto");
    btnSubmit.Style.Add("left", "auto");
    btnSubmit.Style.Add("position", "absolute");

    newcol = CreateDropDownLists();

    for (int counter = 0; counter < NumberOfControls; counter++)
    {
        pnlDisplayData.Controls.Add(newcol[counter]);
        pnlDisplayData.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl("<br><br><br>"));
        pnlDisplayData.Visible = true;
        pnlDisplayData.FindControl(newcol[counter].ID);
    }
}