How do I actually get a field value using field_view_value()? I simply want to get the value of a field and have been told I should use field_view_value. 

To this affect I have created:

$field_text_items = field_get_items('node', $node_context-&gt;data, 'field_text');

$field_text_items_value = field_view_value('node', $node_context-&gt;data, 'field_text', $field_text_items[0]['value']);


But running dpm($field_text_items_value); just returns an array with:

#markup (String, 1 characters ) h
#access (Boolean) TRUE


I'm assuming, because my field's value begins with a 'h', the #markup is only returning the first character for some reason.

Running dpm($field_fcc_text_items[0]['value']); returns the correct result so I know thing field is fine.

I've looked at the documentation linked above, but to be honest a lot of it doesnt make sense. 

Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction here?

Thanks

As a side question, why is field_view_value() preferable to just using something like $field_text_items[0]['value'] anyway?
You may have the field_view_value parameters wrong. Instead of the entity_type-> delta try loading the field first using field_get_items. Use the return value as the second parameter in field_get_items. 

$node = node_load($nid);
$field = field_get_items('node', $node, 'field_name');
$output = field_view_value('node', $node, 'field_name', $field[$delta]);


I took that answer from the blog: https://www.computerminds.co.uk/articles/rendering-drupal-7-fields-right-way