jquery - count li in each of multiple ul and return value

Question

Using jQuery, how do I go through each nested ul.item, count the number of LI, and return that size/length in a parent span.someClass on that page?

<ul>
  <li><span class="someClass">3</span>
    <ul class="item" style="display:none">
      <li>count me</li>
      <li>count me</li>
      <li>count me</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span class="someClass">1</span>
    <ul class="item" style="display:none">
      <li>count me</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span class="someClass">2</span>
    <ul class="item" style="display:none">
      <li>count me</li>
      <li>count me</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

Answer 1

$("ul.item").each(function() {
    // reusabilty
    var context = $(this);
    // count and populate
    context.prev(".someClass").text(context.children().length);
});

Omit .someClass in prev() call if these span elements are always immediately before your ul elements. In that case filtering in prev is not necessary and superfluous.

Answer 2

Try this,

Live Demo

 $('.someClass').each(function(){    
     $(this).text($(this).next('ul').find('li').length);
 })​