if isset, is there a better way?
I use a function I've written called ifset for this purpose:

function ifset(&amp;$var, $prefix='', $suffix='', $else = '') {
    return isset($var) &amp;&amp; $var ? $prefix.$var.$suffix : $else;
}


It can simply be used like:

$foo = 'test';
echo ifset($foo); // produces test
echo ifset($bar); // produces an empty string


Or you can supply a suffix, prefix or else values:

$foo = 'test';
echo ifset($foo, 'before ', ' after', 'foobar'); // produces before test after
echo ifset($bar, 'before ', ' after', 'foobar'); // produces foobar


So, in your instance you could write:

$edu_completed = ifset($entityform_wrapper-&gt;field_education_completed-&gt;value());


This is slightly different to your code a $edu_completed will be an empty string instead of not being set at all.