vertically centering a span with a background image

I have a un-ordered list of links, each of which contains some text and a span element.

<li class="ui-state-default"><a href="#pg-control">Control<span class="ui-icon ui-icon-right_arrow"></span></a></li>

I would like the icon to appear vertically centered relative to the li (inline with the text)

Here is my css

li {
    line-height: 240%;
    display: block;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #666;
    padding: 5px;
}

li a {
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #000;
    display: block;
}

.ui-icon {
    width: 24px;
    height: 24px;
    float: right;
    display: inline-block;
}

Note I am not usi开发者_JAVA百科ng jQuery, I do realize my class names are the same. That is merely coincidence.

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You could move the icon to be a background of the li, or:

Give the li relative positioning then give the icon absolute positioning. Position the icon 50% from the top, and then minus margin the top half of the icon's height. This will vertically center the icon.

li {
    position: relative;
    line-height: 240%;
    display: block;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #666;
    padding: 5px;
}

li a {
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #000;
    display: block;
}


.ui-icon {
    position: absolute;
    top: 50%;
    right: 10px;
    margin-top: -12px
    width: 24px;
    height: 24px;
    display: inline-block;
}

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If it was me i'd make the arrow the background-image of the li something like:

li{
  background:transparent url(the_arrow.jpg) no-repeat center right;
}

I've coded an example...