Question

Will $('#some-field').val() return “something” or empty string? I assume it would return the value regardless if the div is visible or not. But I have been getting empty string. Any idea?

<div style="display:none;">
    <form>
        <input id="some-field" type="text" value="something" />
    </form>
</div>

Answer 1

Try this:

$('div:hidden #some-field').val();

DEMO

Even $('#some-field').val(); will work also, because visibility doesn’t effect, if the element belong to DOM.

DEMO