Product Details in Magento

Load Product using Id in Magento

$product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($id);
//returns product data as a varien object

$product = Mage::getModel('product/product')->load($id)->getData();
//returns product data as an array

Load Product using Sku in Magento

$product = Mage::getModel("catalog/product")->loadByAttribute("sku", $sku);

$product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($product->getIdBySku($sku));
//this one is more efficient

Getting Product Details

After loading product as an object, you can assess variour methods.

$product->getShortDescription(); //returns product's short description
$product->getDescription(); //returns product's long description
$product->getName(); //returns product name
$product->getPrice(); //returns product's regular Price
$product->getSpecialPrice(); //returns product's special Price
$product->getProductUrl(); //returns product url
$product->getImageUrl(); //returns product's image url
$product->getSmallImageUrl(); //returns product's small image url
$product->getThumbnailUrl(); //product's thumbnail image url

If you have data in array format, use var_dump to check what your variable holds.

Formatting Product Price in Magento

getPrice() returns product price without currency sign. To properly format product price use the code below:

$product = Mage::getModel("catalog/product")->load($id);
$price = $product->getPrice();
$formattedPrice = Mage::helper('core')->currency($price, true, false);

//another way
$formattedPrice = Mage::helper('core')->formatPrice($price, true);

//getting price in another currency
Mage::app()->getLocale()->currency($currencyCode)->toCurrency($price);

Get Product Category in Magento

$product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($id);

$categoryIds = $product->getCategoryIds();
//returns category ids since a product can be associated with more than one category

foreach($categoryIds as $category_id)
{
  $category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->setStoreId(Mage::app()->getStore()->getId())->load($category_id);
  echo $category->getName(); //returns category name
}