javascript - Counting number of span stored inside variable in jquery -

basically trying count number of spans stored inside items variable length returning 0

var items = '<br><span class="holiday">buddha jayanti</span><br><span class="workingday">shiva ratri</span>';  var length = $(items).find('span').length; alert(length); //returning 0 

is there somthing missing here?

because span @ root of element set, .find() not return elements, need use .filter() instead

var items = '<br><span class="holiday">buddha jayanti</span><br><span class="workingday">shiva ratri</span>';    var length = $(items).filter('span').length;  snippet.log(length);

<!-- provides `snippet` object, see http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/242144/134069 -->  <script src="http://tjcrowder.github.io/simple-snippets-console/snippet.js"></script>    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

---

if there possibility have descendant span elements then, option is

var items = '<br><span class="holiday">buddha jayanti</span><br><span class="workingday">shiva ratri</span><div><br><span class="workingday">some value</span></div>';    var length = $('<div />', {    html: items  }).find('span').length;  snippet.log(length);

<!-- provides `snippet` object, see http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/242144/134069 -->  <script src="http://tjcrowder.github.io/simple-snippets-console/snippet.js"></script>    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>