jQuery - Finding radio button by its value

Question

I'm scratching my head over this one.

HTML:

<form>
      <input name="changes" type="radio" value="2012-05-18T16%3A53%3A00.000000000000%2B0100">
      <span>2012-05-18 16:53:00 +0100</span>
      <input name="changes" type="radio" value="2012-05-29T16%3A51%3A00.000000000000%2B0100">
      <span>2012-05-29 16:51:00 +0100</span>
      <input name="changes" type="radio" value="2012-05-31T17%3A30%3A00.000000000000%2B0100">
      <span>2012-05-31 17:30:00 +0100</span>
      <input name="changes" type="radio" value="2012-06-01T16%3A30%3A00.000000000000%2B0100">
      <input id="view-change" type="button" value="View">
</form>

In the Chrome JavaScript console:

var today = "2012-05-18T16%3A53%3A00.000000000000%2B0100"
$('input[value="2012-05-18T16%3A53%3A00.000000000000%2B0100"]') -> Finds object
$('input[value=today]') -> Nothing

Huh? Why can't i select the input using a var?

PS. Ive confirmed, jQuery.type(today) = string

Answer 1

Try:

$('input[value="'+today+'"]')

See jsfiddle

Answer 2

You should do that like this:

$('input[value="' + today + '"]');

In php you can just insert vars into a string and they will be substituted with their values, but not in javascript. You need to concatenate the string part with the contents of the variable to make it work. Now you are just looking for an input with a value of (literally) 'today', not the contents of the var 'today'.