Counting files in the current directory using linux

To determine how many files there are in the current directory, put in ls -1 | wc -l.

ls -1 (ie: a one):
prints in one column and avoids the display of the total line (which would otherwise increase the line count).
"total" indicates the number of file system blocks used by files in the directory.

wc -l (ie: an L):
counts the lines (as switched by the L, not interested in characters or words)

From: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x700.html