Get the property names of an object. Helpful when parsing JSON data or large arrays with an unknown structure.

get-property-names.php

/**
 * Get property names of an object
 * @return array Property names, else error message.
 */
function getPropertyNames($object = null)
{
    if (!$object) {
        return array('getPropertyNames() was passed an empty object.');
    }

    $properties = array();

    foreach ($object as $property => $property_value) {
        array_push($properties, $property);
    }

    return !empty($properties) ? $properties : array('getPropertyNames() found no properties in your ' . getType($object) . '.');
}

Have you considered always returning an array? That way, you won't need to have extra logic to treat the output, because right now it might be an array or a string.

@jonfriskics True that.

PS - Why doesn't Github Gist send you notifications when people leave comments? Awfully inconvenient to find this a month later.