I have found an <input type="text" ... element on a page, for which $('thatElement').val() and $('thatElement')[0].value return the value, the value is displayed in the rendered output, but there is no value="..." attribute on the element itself.
How can there be no value attribute in the HTML for an input element, but it still has a value and still displays its value?
Browser console:
> $('thatElement')[0].value
'The text that the page shows inside of the input'
> $('thatElement')[0].outerHTML
'<input autocomplete="off" type="text" readonly spellcheck="false">'
There's a difference between the source of a document and its DOM representation. The source file is static and won't change. The DOM might change. I think it depends on how you manipulate it.
In this example the input value is set but the DOM isn't updated: (run and inspect the result)
document.querySelector('input').value = 42;<input />In this example both the input and the DOM is updated:
document.querySelector('input').setAttribute('value', 'foobar');<input />