php try json decode
/** Checks if JSON and returns decoded as an array, if not, returns false, but you can pass the second parameter true, if you need to return a string in case it's not JSON */ function tryJsonDecode($string, $returnString = false) { $arr = json_decode($string); if (json_last_error() === JSON_ERROR_NONE) { return $arr; } else { return ($returnString) ? $string : false; } }