Pre-populating a CCK field item with values from another field
$result = db_query('SELECT `vid`, `field_level_label_value` FROM `drupal_content_type_meas_areas`;');
while ($item = db_fetch_object($result)) {
$items[] = $item-&gt;field_level_label_value;
}
return $items;


I figured it out -- removing the $item->vid bit as $items' array key results in the proper values. 

Oh Drupal, so subtle in its frustrations! :D