d3.select(“#element”) not working when code above the html element

<script>$(function(){var svg = d3.select("#chart").append("svg:svg");});</script>
<div id="chart"></div>

In other words, it’s not happening because you can’t query against something that doesn’t exist yet– so just do it after the page loads (here via jquery).

Btw, its recommended that you place your JS files before the close of your body tag.