jquery selector can't read from hidden field

Question

(answers aggregated into another question)

The following jquery 1.3.2 code works:

Answer 1

Not sure why that would be failing. I do the same thing at work on a regular basis, and it works regardless of the formfield being hidden or not.

Perhaps try this:

That will get you the value of the hidden field. To get the value out of a form field, the .val() method needs to be used.