title: Referencing Hidden Item in Oracle APEX
body: <p>So I have a select list and a hidden page item, I want to dynamically update the select list based on the value of the hidden item.</p>
  
  <p>My select list code is the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>if :P26_HIDDEN_ITEM != 'Other'
  then
  return
  q'[SELECT DISTINCT tag d, tag r 
  FROM builds
  WHERE instr(tag,:p26_env_storage)&gt;0
  OR tag = 'tagged']';
  else
  return
  q'[SELECT DISTINCT tag d, tag r 
  FROM builds
  WHERE tag = 'tagged']';
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now I believe there is no problem with my code, when I make the hidden item any other form of page item  or even reference another page item such as a select list the query runs as expected, but when :P26_HIDDEN_ITEM is hidden the query just runs the else statement ignoring the top half of the query.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is the same if I change the conditional too, it always goes straight to the else statement. Also I know for a fact that :P26_HIDDEN_ITEM updates as I have checked it multiple times in the session.</p>
  
  <p>So is there a way to reference a hidden item like this or do I need to take a different route?</p>
  
  <p>I'm using APEX 4.2.2 if that helps.</p>