Understanding Field Collection Values

When a field collection is added to a user, node, or other Drupal entity it is represented with a field type of field_collection_item. The value stored in the field_collection_item field is the id of the field collection, not the individual values of the fields making up the field_collection_item.

For example, take the following configuration:

• Node type Playlist
• Playlist has a field collection named Track (field_track)
  field_track of type field collection
• Track field collection consists of the fields Song and Artist
  field_song of type text
  field_artist of type text

A Playlist node is created with two tracks. For the purposes of the example the following values are assigned:

• Playlist node id: 25
• 1st track: field_collection id: 17
  field_song: The Drupal Song
  field_artist: Lullabots
• 2nd track: field_collection id: 18
  field_song: Drupal Heaven (I Shall Be Released)
  field_artist: The Secret Kitten Killers

When node 25 is loaded, field_track has the following value:

[field_track] => Array
    (
        [und] => Array
            (
                [0] => Array
                    (
                        [value] => 17
                    )
                [1] => Array
                    (
                        [value] => 18
                    )
            )
    )

To get the values of the individual field items call the entity_load function:

  $node25 = node_load(25);
  $track_1 = entity_load('field_collection_item', array($node25->field_track[LANGUAGE_NONE][0]['value']));
  $track_2 = entity_load('field_collection_item', array($node25->field_track[LANGUAGE_NONE][1]['value']));