How to count number of files in a directory and store that result in a variable?

Hi,

How to count number of files in a directory and store that result in a variable?

count=ls -1 | wc -l

count=find ./ -name *.dat -type f | wc -l

I am using the above two queries both are returning the results but not storing that result in count variable. Value in count is always NULL. Please advise.

Thanks,

Usman.