使用jQuery查找无序列表中有多少列表项

I am creating a tabbed content interface. The content panels are an unordered list created using a server-side script. I want to add tabs via jQuery to control the panels. The only requirement for the jQuery plugin to work is to have the same amount of panels as tabs (the number of panels isn't always consistent). I need to query how many list items are in my ul.panels and store it in a variable, so I can create a loop with that variable to append my list items in ul.tabs.I am creating a tabbed content interface. The c