Check for iterable content PHP

Question

As for for PHP >= 7.1 it is possible to detect if a variable is iterable or not using is_iterable().

is there an alternative to this for PHP <= 7 ?

how can i perform this since im working on php 7.0 ?

Would [traversable](http://php.net/manual/en/class.traversable.php) help you? — Jonnix, May 02 '17 at 11:51
Possible duplicate of [How to detect if object is Traversable in PHP?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31701517/how-to-detect-if-object-is-traversable-in-php) — Manoj Salvi, May 02 '17 at 11:52
@ManojSalvi the answers for this question don't respect arrays — Philipp, May 02 '17 at 11:55

Philipp · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-03T12:18:27.043

10

You just have to test, if the given var is of type Traversable or if it is an array. Everything else isn't iterable.

if (!function_exists('is_iterable')) {
    function is_iterable($var)
    {
        return is_array($var) || $var instanceof \Traversable;
    }
}

edited May 03 '17 at 12:18

answered May 02 '17 at 11:54

Philipp

2

cover this function in ´if (!function_exists('is_iterable')) { ... }´ to keep it safe for the future. nobody knows if the provider or somebody else is updating the php version. – Marcel May 02 '17 at 12:15
4

Objects of class `stdClass` are iterable, but are not arrays or instances of `Traversable`. – Steven Jeffries Nov 18 '17 at 22:41
@StevenJeffries is_iterable(new stdclass) returns false in php 7.2 – Pierre-Antoine Guillaume Aug 23 '19 at 10:54

1 Answers1