is_array

    (PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

    is_array — Finds whether a variable is an array

    Description

    function is_array(mixed $value): bool

    Finds whether the given variable is an array.

    Parameters

    value

    The variable being evaluated.

    Return Values

    Returns true if value is an array, false otherwise.

    Examples

    Example #1 Check that variable is an array

    <?php
$yes = array('this', 'is', 'an array');

echo is_array($yes) ? 'Array' : 'not an Array';
echo "\n";

$no = 'this is a string';

echo is_array($no) ? 'Array' : 'not an Array';
?>

    The above example will output:

    Array
not an Array

    See Also

    • array_is_list() - Checks whether a given array is a list
    • is_float() - Finds whether the type of a variable is float
    • is_int() - Find whether the type of a variable is integer
    • is_string() - Find whether the type of a variable is string
    • is_object() - Finds whether a variable is an object

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    User Contributed Notes 19 notes

    up
    72
    Rob Thomas
    9 years ago
    Please note that the 'cast to array' check is horrendously out of date.

Running that code against PHP 5.6 results in this:

is_array  :  0.93975400924683
cast, === :  1.2425191402435

So, please use 'is_array', not the horrible casting hack.
    up
    40
    skaimauve at yahoo dot ca
    17 years ago
    Or you could make use of the array_diff_key and array_key function:

<?php

function is_assoc($var)
{
        return is_array($var) && array_diff_key($var,array_keys(array_keys($var)));
}

function test($var)
{
        echo is_assoc($var) ? "I'm an assoc array.\n" : "I'm not an assoc array.\n";
}

// an assoc array
$a = array("a"=>"aaa","b"=>1,"c"=>true);
test($a);

// an array
$b = array_values($a);
test($b);