Getting the position of the element in a list when it's drag/dropped (ui.sortable)

Question

I have a sortable list like this one: http://jqueryui.com/demos/sortable

Is it possible to get the start and end position of the element in the list, when it has been moved? I'm talking about their position number, in the list.

For example, if I move element 2 to position 5 in the list, I'd like to assign those two numbers to variables.

I'm new to jQuery - any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

• demo: http://so.lucafilosofi.com/getting-the-position-of-the-element-in-a-list-when-its-drag-dropped-ui-sortable/

SOLUTION:

$(function() {
    $('ul#sortable').sortable({
        start: function(event, ui) {
            var start_pos = ui.item.index();
            ui.item.data('start_pos', start_pos);
        },
        update: function(event, ui) {
            var start_pos = ui.item.data('start_pos');
            var end_pos = ui.item.index();
            alert(start_pos + ' - ' + end_pos);
        }
    });
});

• NOTE: Updated to make use of jQuery data() method under advice of Alconja