Does anyone know of a robust (and bullet proof) is_JSON function snippet for PHP? I (obviously) have a situation where I need to know if a string is JSON or not.
Hmm, perhaps run it through a JSONLint request/response, but that seems a bit overkill.
If you are using the built in json_decode
PHP function, json_last_error
returns the last error (e.g. JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX
when your string wasn't JSON).
Usually json_decode
returns null
anyway.
What about using json_decode
, which should return null
if the given string was not valid JSON-encoded data ?
See example 3 on the manual page :
// the following strings are valid JavaScript but not valid JSON
// the name and value must be enclosed in double quotes
// single quotes are not valid
$bad_json = "{ 'bar': 'baz' }";
json_decode($bad_json); // null
// the name must be enclosed in double quotes
$bad_json = '{ bar: "baz" }';
json_decode($bad_json); // null
// trailing commas are not allowed
$bad_json = '{ bar: "baz", }';
json_decode($bad_json); // null
For my projects I use this function (please read the "Note" on the json_decode() docs).
Passing the same arguments you would pass to json_decode() you can detect specific application "errors" (e.g. depth errors)
With PHP >= 5.6
// PHP >= 5.6
function is_JSON(...$args) {
json_decode(...$args);
return (json_last_error()===JSON_ERROR_NONE);
}
With PHP >= 5.3
// PHP >= 5.3
function is_JSON() {
call_user_func_array('json_decode',func_get_args());
return (json_last_error()===JSON_ERROR_NONE);
}
Usage example:
$mystring = '{"param":"value"}';
if (is_JSON($mystring)) {
echo "Valid JSON string";
} else {
$error = json_last_error_msg();
echo "Not valid JSON string ($error)";
}
Doesn't json_decode()
with a json_last_error()
work for you? Are you looking for just a method to say "does this look like JSON" or actually validate it? json_decode()
would be the only way to effectively validate it within PHP.
$this->post_data = json_decode( stripslashes( $post_data ) );
if( $this->post_data === NULL )
{
die( '{"status":false,"msg":"The post_data parameter must be valid JSON"}' );
}