How can I check the number of the item that was clicked

Let's say I have many items with click event (all have same element name and possibly same class).

<a>开发者_开发问答A</a>
<a>B</a>
<a>C</a>
<a>D</a>

then I have method that is triggered on click event. How can I check number of the item that was clicked?

In the example if 'C' was clicked then I should get 3 as an answer.

You can use .prevAll():

$('a').click(function() {
    alert($(this).prevAll('a').length + 1);
});

Or .index():

$('a').click(function() {
    alert($(this).index() + 1);
});

You can also use .index()

$("a").bind("click",function(){
    alert($(this).index());             // 0 indicates first item
});