Drupal 7 tip : Get field values from entity objects like nodes, users, taxonomy, ...

This small drupal 7 tip will help you get out values from entity objects, like nodes, users, taxonomy, ...

You probably seen this data structure when loading nodes:

<?php
$entity ->fieldname[language][delta] = [item];
?>

You could loop through it but this will not take into account the language. There is a function that takes care of extracting data so you dont have to worry about the data structures language:

<?php
$items = field_get_items('node', $node, 'field_yourfield', $node->language);
?>

You ll find more here:
http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/modules--field--field.module/group/field/7

EDIT: This is also very a very handy function found on drupal7ish his blog http://drupal7ish.blogspot.com/2011/03/getting-field-data-out-of-entitie...

<?php
/**
 * Returns field values as actual entities where possible,
 * also allows selection of individual items to be returned
 */
function field_fetch_field_values($entity_type, $entity, $field_name, $get_delta = NULL, $get_key = NULL) {
  $values = array();
  if (isset($entity->$field_name) && !empty($entity->$field_name)) {
    foreach (field_get_items($entity_type, $entity, $field_name) as $delta => $item) {
      $value = $item;
      $keys = array_keys($item);
      if (count($keys)==1) {
        $key = $keys[0];
        switch ($key) {
          case 'nid':
            $value = array_shift(entity_load('node', array($item[$key])));
            break;
          case 'uid':
            $value = array_shift(entity_load('user', array($item[$key])));
            break;
          case 'tid':
            $value = array_shift(entity_load('taxonomy_term', array($item[$key])));
            break;
          case 'vid':
            $value = array_shift(entity_load('taxonomy_vocabulary', array($item[$key])));
            break;
          case 'value':
            $value = $item['value'];
            break;
        }
      }
      else {
        if ($get_key && isset($item[$get_key])) {
          $value = $item[$get_key];
        }
        elseif (array_key_exists('value', $item)) {
          $value = isset($item['safe_value']) ? $item['safe_value'] : $item['value'];
        }
      }
      $values[$delta] = $value;
    }
  }
  if (is_numeric($get_delta)) {
    return isset($values[$get_delta]) ? $values[$get_delta] : NULL;
  }
  return $values;
}
?>
Submitted by Dominique De Cooman on Mon, 2011-06-20 10:00
d7tip entities fields

Handy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2011-06-20 11:10.

I think it is usefull to omit the language so it is calculated automatically. So even more convenient is :

<?php
$items = field_get_items('node', $node, 'field_yourfield');
?>

Your right, if the current

Submitted by Dominique De Cooman on Mon, 2011-06-20 11:38.

Your right, if the current language is needed you can ommit the language parameter.

Super helpful! Thank you.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2011-08-11 03:12.

Super helpful! Thank you.

Good tip

Submitted by Sven Decabooter (not verified) on Wed, 2011-06-22 08:52.

Good tip, will have to keep that in mind.
If you are using Entity API module, you could also use entity_metadata_wrapper() to achieve this...

A question regarding the function found at drupal7ish

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-08-23 12:54.

I have a question regarding the function found at:

http://drupal7ish.blogspot.com

It returns taxonomy term names, what change do I need to make for that function so it would return tid's instead ?!

Thanks.

field_extract module

Submitted by Adaddinsane (not verified) on Sun, 2011-09-11 17:03.

Thanks for noticing my little function - but there is now a module, field_extract, which provides a couple of versatile functions for fetching data in various ways from entities, you can find it here.