Question

how can i count elements with the class item which is contained in a variable

so far http://jsfiddle.net/jGj4B/

var post = '<div/><div class="item"></div><div class="item"></div><div class="item"></div><div class="item"></div>';
alert($(post).find('.item').length);​ // i have tried .size() in place of .length

Answer 1

You want filter instead of find:

$(post).filter('.item').length

find looks for descendent element, and there are none.

If you want both top-level items and descendants, you could do this:

$(post).find('.item').andSelf().filter(".item").length

Though wrapping it in a span as suggested in another answer is probably much more understandable.

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EDIT 7/19/2013: andSelf has been deprecated as of v1.8 and addBack should be used in its place.

$(post).find('.item').addBack().filter(".item").length