如果字符串表示json数组或对象，则返回true:

function isJson($str) {
    $json = json_decode($str);
    return $json && $str != $json;
}

它拒绝只包含数字、字符串或布尔值的json字符串，尽管这些字符串在技术上是有效的json。

var_dump(isJson('{"a":5}')); // bool(true)
var_dump(isJson('[1,2,3]')); // bool(true)
var_dump(isJson('1')); // bool(false)
var_dump(isJson('1.5')); // bool(false)
var_dump(isJson('true')); // bool(false)
var_dump(isJson('false')); // bool(false)
var_dump(isJson('null')); // bool(false)
var_dump(isJson('hello')); // bool(false)
var_dump(isJson('')); // bool(false)

这是我能想到的最短的方法了。

下面是我创建的一个简单的性能函数(在使用json_decode处理更大的字符串之前使用基本的字符串验证):

function isJson($string) {
    $response = false;

    if (
        is_string($string) &&
        ($string = trim($string)) &&
        ($stringLength = strlen($string)) &&
        (
            (
                stripos($string, '{') === 0 &&
                (stripos($string, '}', -1) + 1) === $stringLength
            ) ||
            (
                stripos($string, '[{') === 0 &&
                (stripos($string, '}]', -1) + 2) === $stringLength
            )
        ) &&
        ($decodedString = json_decode($string, true)) &&
        is_array($decodedString)
    ) {
        $response = true;
    }

    return $response;
}

function is_json($str){ 
    return json_decode($str) != null;
}

当检测到非法编码时，http://tr.php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php返回值为空。

$r = (array)json_decode($arr);
if(!is_array($r) || count($r) < 1) return false;

再扩展一下这个答案，下面的问题如何:

<?php

    $json = '[{"user_id":13,"username":"stack"},{"user_id":14,"username":"over"}]';
    //$json = '12';

    function isJson($string) {
        json_decode($string);
        if(json_last_error() == JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
            if(substr($string,0,1) == '[' && substr($string,-1) == ']') { return TRUE; }
            else if(substr($string,0,1) == '{' && substr($string,-1) == '}') { return TRUE; }
            else { return FALSE; }
        }
    }

    echo isJson($json);
?>

在GuzzleHttp:

/**
 * Wrapper for json_decode that throws when an error occurs.
 *
 * @param string $json    JSON data to parse
 * @param bool $assoc     When true, returned objects will be converted
 *                        into associative arrays.
 * @param int    $depth   User specified recursion depth.
 * @param int    $options Bitmask of JSON decode options.
 *
 * @return mixed
 * @throws \InvalidArgumentException if the JSON cannot be decoded.
 * @link http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php
 */
function json_decode($json, $assoc = false, $depth = 512, $options = 0)
{
    $data = \json_decode($json, $assoc, $depth, $options);
    if (JSON_ERROR_NONE !== json_last_error()) {
        throw new \InvalidArgumentException(
            'json_decode error: ' . json_last_error_msg());
    }

    return $data;
}

/**
 * Wrapper for JSON encoding that throws when an error occurs.
 *
 * @param mixed $value   The value being encoded
 * @param int    $options JSON encode option bitmask
 * @param int    $depth   Set the maximum depth. Must be greater than zero.
 *
 * @return string
 * @throws \InvalidArgumentException if the JSON cannot be encoded.
 * @link http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php
 */
function json_encode($value, $options = 0, $depth = 512)
{
    $json = \json_encode($value, $options, $depth);
    if (JSON_ERROR_NONE !== json_last_error()) {
        throw new \InvalidArgumentException(
            'json_encode error: ' . json_last_error_msg());
    }

    return $json;
}