Supported Versions: PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8
Finds whether a variable is an array
<?php is_array(mixed $value): bool
<?php     public static function ifJsonToArray(mixed $data): string|object|array {

        if (is_string($data)) {

            $array = json_decode($data, true);

            $data = is_array($array) ? $array : $data;

        }

        return $data;

    }