How to get the node title of a refernced node

Question

I'm using Drupal 7, and trying to work some magic from within a hook_node_presave() function.

I have a node reference field, and I'm trying to get the name of the referenced node rather than nid. When I trace out the field ($node->field_my_name) I get the following

Array
(
    [und] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [nid] => 23
                )

        )

)

I wondering if there is a way to get the title without doing a full load of the referenced node. Is there anyway I can do this with a token? Would this no be an issue if I were using entity reference rather than references?

Answer 1

You could use entity_label() function.

The function takes the entire entity as an argument, and it should already be loaded.
I would just load the node. As the other author suggested, it is very likely to be already cached in a hook_node_presave() call.