HTML-encoding lost when attribute read from input field

Question

I’m using JavaScript to pull a value out from a hidden field and display it in a textbox. The value in the hidden field is encoded.

For example,

Answer 1

FWIW, the encoding is not being lost. The encoding is used by the markup parser (browser) during the page load. Once the source is read and parsed and the browser has the DOM loaded into memory, the encoding has been parsed into what it represents. So by the time your JS is execute to read anything in memory, the char it gets is what the encoding represented.

I may be operating strictly on semantics here, but I wanted you to understand the purpose of encoding. The word "lost" makes it sound like something isn't working like it should.