How to get instance of referenced entity?

Question

I have a node object with image field named field_image. When I do

$node
  ->get('field_image')
  ->first()
  ->getValue()

I get array with some properties instead of entity object. The array looks like this:

'target_id' => string '8' (length=1)
'alt' => string '' (length=0)
'title' => string '' (length=0)
'width' => string '587' (length=3)
'height' => string '458' (length=3)
'_loaded' => boolean true
  '_accessCacheability' => 
    object(Drupal\Core\Cache\CacheableMetadata)[1092]
      protected 'cacheContexts' => 
        array (size=0)
          ...
      protected 'cacheTags' => 
        array (size=0)
          ...
      protected 'cacheMaxAge' => int -1

Do I have to manullay load the file entity using target_id or there is a way to automatically get referenced entity object from instance of Drupal\image\Plugin\Field\FieldType\ImageItem?

Why the referenced entity is not accessible via getter? It could be lazy loaded if it's not available immediately.

Answer 1

The path to referenced entity is very long:

// $id = some node ID
// $field = field name for entity reference field
$node = Node::load($id);

/** @var \Drupal\Core\Field\Plugin\Field\FieldType\EntityReferenceItem $referenceItem */
$referenceItem = $node->get($field)->first();

/** @var \Drupal\Core\Entity\Plugin\DataType\EntityReference $entityReference */
$entityReference = $referenceItem->get('entity');

/** @var \Drupal\Core\Entity\Plugin\DataType\EntityAdapter $entityAdapter */
$entityAdapter = $entityReference->getTarget();

/** @var \Drupal\Core\Entity\EntityInterface $referencedEntity */
$referencedEntity = $entityAdapter->getValue();

// At this point $referencedEntity is the referenced entity object.

Of course one can still get it via one liner call, but still, it is cumbersome and I wonder why EntityReferenceItem does not provide method that would return the reference entity object.

$referencedEntity = $node
  ->get($field)
  ->first()
  ->get('entity')
  ->getTarget()
  ->getValue()
;

Note: if you have php 8, you can use the nullsafe operator:

$referencedEntity = $node
  ?->get($field)
  ?->first()
  ?->get('entity')
  ?->getTarget()
  ?->getValue()
;

It's also worth noting that it's quite easy to get array of all referenced entities:

$node->get($field)->referencedEntities();

It works because for entity reference fields $node->get($field) returns instance of EntityReferenceFieldItemList which implements referencedEntities() method.

Answer 2

You can use $node->field_image->entity, if you want the first value.

Answer 3

For how to get an entity from a referenced field. Im agree with @SiliconMind about referencedEntities it return an array of entity objects keyed by field item deltas.

Just simple:

$node->get('field_name')->referencedEntities();

EntityReferenceFieldItemList::referencedEntities

Answer 4

What worked for me was:

$entity_id = $node->get('field_contact')->first()->getValue()['target_id'];

$entity = Node::load($entity_id)->toArray();

The other answers didn't produce the entity fields array I was expecting

Answer 5

$ENTITY->FIELD_MACHINE_NAME->entity returns the first item that referenced. but if you want to get value of the specified field in that entity use

$ENTITY->FIELD_MACHINE_NAME->entity->FIELDMACHINENAME_IN_REFERENCED_ENTITY->value

for example, if you want to get hospital_key of the hospital entity reference field on user entity. use

$user->field_hospital->entity->field_hospital_key->value

Answer 6

Here's a gist for a NestedEntityReference utility class I cooked up, modeled after the NestedArray utility class in Drupal core: https://gist.github.com/GuyPaddock/69ce592e2b58862da852afc5d7563c4a

This provides a way to access the targets of ER fields safely, even if the ER field is empty or refers to non-existent entities (e.g. if a target entity was deleted separately through an admin interface, such as in the case of https://www.drupal.org/project/entityreference/issues/2827177). As a bonus, this utility class bakes-in some development-time assertions so you can catch data structure/data issues early.

Example of usage (navigating from a node -> media entity -> URL to video file in the entity):

/** @var \Drupal\media\MediaInterface|null $video_media */
$video_media =
  NestedEntityReference::getTargetEntity(
    $my_node,
    'field_video',
    MediaInterface::class
  );

if ($video_media !== NULL) {
  /** @var \Drupal\file\FileInterface $video_file */
  $video_file =
    NestedEntityReference::getTargetEntity(
      $video_media,
      'field_file',
      FileInterface::class
    );

  $file_url = $video_file->createFileUrl()
}

Feedback on the Gist is welcome!