unable to get product attribute from product collection

Question

i have tried so many times to get a custom attribute called 'c_color' from a product collection

here is my product collection code:

$searchstring = 'test';
$productCollection = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')
                        ->getCollection() 
                        ->addAttributeToSelect('*')
                        ->addAttributeToSelect('name')
                        ->addAttributeToSelect('c_color')
                        ->addAttributeToFilter('type_id', array('configurable','simple'))
                        ->addAttributeToFilter('name', array('like' => '%'.$searchstring.'%'))
                        ->joinField('qty',
                 'cataloginventory/stock_item',
                 'qty',
                 'product_id=entity_id',
                 '{{table}}.stock_id=1',
                 'left');

foreach ($productCollection as $_product){

        echo 'Color: '.$_product->getResource()->getAttribute('c_color')->getFrontend()->getValue($_product).'</br>';
        echo 'Color: '.$_product->getData('c_color').'</br>';
        echo 'Color: '.$_product->C_color().'</br>';

}

$_product->getResource()->getAttribute('c_color')->getFrontend()->getValue($_product) and getData, and getC_color() are also able to get the attributes, any idea? Is the problem related to the visibility of the c_color?

update 1

  ["_data":protected] => array(35) {
    ["entity_id"] => string(6) "172358"
    ["entity_type_id"] => string(1) "4"
    ["attribute_set_id"] => string(2) "80"
    ["type_id"] => string(6) "simple"
    ["sku"] => string(14) "skuuu"
    ["has_options"] => string(1) "0"
    ["required_options"] => string(1) "0"
    ["created_at"] => string(19) "2016-08-23 06:20:54"
    ["updated_at"] => string(19) "2016-08-23 06:20:54"
    ["ordered"] => string(1) "0"
    ["viewed"] => string(1) "0"
    ["parent_id"] => string(6) "172256"
    ["c_color"] => string(4) "1478"
    ["size"] => string(3) "183"
    ["name"] => string(49) "asfsafafsafa"
    ["image"] => string(35) "abc.jpg"
    ["small_image"] => string(35) "abc.jpg"
    ["thumbnail"] => string(35) "abc.jpg"
    ["url_key"] => string(15) "yikatiyi-at0831"
    ["style"] => string(3) "904"
    ["price"] => string(8) "199.0000"
    ["cost"] => string(7) "89.7000"
    ["price_retail"] => string(8) "199.0000"
    ["brand"] => string(4) "2008"

i can getData('brand'), but i can't get getData('c_color'), any ideas?

Answer 1

Your custom attribute is not visible to product listing collection, set the property 'used_in_product_listing' => true or retrieve the attribute with getAttributeRawValue() example:

$_product->getResource()->getAttributeRawValue($_product->getId(),'c_color',Mage::app()->getStore()->getStoreId());