我认为标量数组的定义因应用程序而异。也就是说，一些应用程序将需要更严格的定义标量数组，而一些应用程序将需要更宽松的定义。

下面我将介绍3种不同严格程度的方法。

<?php
/**
 * Since PHP stores all arrays as associative internally, there is no proper
 * definition of a scalar array.
 * 
 * As such, developers are likely to have varying definitions of scalar array,
 * based on their application needs.
 * 
 * In this file, I present 3 increasingly strict methods of determining if an
 * array is scalar.
 * 
 * @author David Farrell <DavidPFarrell@gmail.com>
 */

/**
 * isArrayWithOnlyIntKeys defines a scalar array as containing
 * only integer keys.
 * 
 * If you are explicitly setting integer keys on an array, you
 * may need this function to determine scalar-ness.
 * 
 * @param array $a
 * @return boolean
 */ 
function isArrayWithOnlyIntKeys(array $a)
{
    if (!is_array($a))
        return false;
    foreach ($a as $k => $v)
        if (!is_int($k))
            return false;
    return true;
}

/**
 * isArrayWithOnlyAscendingIntKeys defines a scalar array as
 * containing only integer keys in ascending (but not necessarily
 * sequential) order.
 * 
 * If you are performing pushes, pops, and unsets on your array,
 * you may need this function to determine scalar-ness.
 * 
 * @param array $a
 * @return boolean
 */ 
function isArrayWithOnlyAscendingIntKeys(array $a)
{
    if (!is_array($a))
        return false;
    $prev = null;
    foreach ($a as $k => $v)
    {
        if (!is_int($k) || (null !== $prev && $k <= $prev))
            return false;
        $prev = $k;
    }
    return true;
}

/**
 * isArrayWithOnlyZeroBasedSequentialIntKeys defines a scalar array
 * as containing only integer keys in sequential, ascending order,
 * starting from 0.
 * 
 * If you are only performing operations on your array that are
 * guaranteed to either maintain consistent key values, or that
 * re-base the keys for consistency, then you can use this function.
 * 
 * @param array $a
 * @return boolean
 */
function isArrayWithOnlyZeroBasedSequentialIntKeys(array $a)
{
    if (!is_array($a))
        return false;
    $i = 0;
    foreach ($a as $k => $v)
        if ($i++ !== $k)
            return false;
    return true;
}

这是解决方案吗?

  public static function isArrayAssociative(array $array) {
      reset($array);
      return !is_int(key($array));
  }

需要注意的是，数组光标被重置了，但我想说的是，这个函数可能在数组被遍历或使用之前就被使用了。

已经有很多答案了，下面是Laravel在Arr类中依赖的方法:

/**
 * Determines if an array is associative.
 *
 * An array is "associative" if it doesn't have sequential numerical keys beginning with zero.
 *
 * @param  array  $array
 * @return bool
 */
public static function isAssoc(array $array)
{
    $keys = array_keys($array);

    return array_keys($keys) !== $keys;
}

来源:https://github.com/laravel/framework/blob/5.4/src/Illuminate/Support/Arr.php

A lot of the solutions here are elegant and pretty, but don't scale well, and are memory intensive or CPU intensive. Most are creating 2 new data points in memory with this solution from both sides of the comparison. The larger the array the harder and longer the process and memory used, and you lose the benefit of short circuit evaluation. I Did some testing with a few different ideas. Trying to avoid array_key_exists as it is costly, and also avoiding creating new large datasets to compare. I feel this is a simple way to tell if an array is sequential.

public function is_sequential( $arr = [] ){
    if( !is_array( $arr ) || empty( $arr ) ) return false;

    $i = 0;

    $total = count( $arr );

    foreach( $arr as $key => $value ) if( $key !== $i++ ) return false;

    return true;
}

在主数组上运行一个计数并存储一个整数。然后循环遍历数组并在迭代计数器时检查精确匹配。你应该从1开始计数。如果它失败了，它会短路，当它为假时，它会给你性能的提升。

最初，我这样做了一个for循环和检查isset($arr[$ I])，但这将不检测null键，这需要array_key_exists，我们知道，这是最糟糕的函数使用速度。

通过foreach不断更新变量，并检查迭代器，永远不会超过它的整数大小，让PHP使用它内置的内存优化，缓存和垃圾收集，以保持非常低的资源使用。

此外，我认为在foreach中使用array_keys是愚蠢的，因为您可以简单地运行$key => $value并检查键。为什么要创建新的数据点?一旦抽象出数组键，就会立即消耗更多内存。

通过使用xarray PHP扩展

你可以非常快地做到这一点(在PHP 5.6中大约快30倍):

if (array_is_indexed($array)) {  }

Or:

if (array_is_assoc($array)) {  }

这个函数可以处理:

索引有孔的数组(例如1、2、4、5、8、10) 带有“0x”键的数组:例如，键“08”是关联的，键“8”是顺序的。

思想很简单:如果其中一个键不是整数，它就是关联数组，否则就是顺序数组。

function is_asso($a){
    foreach(array_keys($a) as $key) {if (!is_int($key)) return TRUE;}
    return FALSE;
}