Jquery Multiple Attribute Selector not working

Question

I am trying to select for 2 attributes that are variable on a multiple choice quiz. I echoed the correct answer to each question in an input that doesn't display on the page. I think my line where I select for 2 different attributes is the problem.
JQUERY:

        var zz = 1;

        while (zz <= <?php echo $num_rows ?>){  //I'm 100% postive $num_rows returns a value of 3
        var zstring = '#answer' + zz;

        var theanswer = $(zstring).attr('value');  //should return "a" or "c" or whatever the answer is

        if $("input[name=zz][value=theanswer]").is(':checked') {  //this is the line that's not working

              alert("the code worked");
        }       

        zz++;       
        } 

HTML echoed from PHP

echo "<input type='radio' name=" . $question_number ." value='a'> A. " . $chA . "<br><br>";
echo "<input type='radio' name=" . $question_number ." value='b'> B. " . $chB . "<br><br>";
echo "<input type='radio' name=" . $question_number ." value='c'> C. " . $chC . "<br><br>";
echo "<input type='radio' name=" . $question_number ." value='d'> D. " . $chD . "<br><br>";
echo "<input type='radio' name=" . $question_number ." value='e'> E. " . $chE . "<br>";
echo "<input type='text' id='answer".$question_number."' style='display: none;' value='".$correct."' />";

Answer 1

I see that in the if statement you have this:

if $("input[name=zz][value=theanswer]").is(':checked') {  //this is the line 

it should be:

if ($('input[name="zz"][value="theanswer"]').is(':checked')) {  //this is the line