How to check if memcache or memcached is installed for PHP?

You can look at phpinfo() or check if any of the functions of memcache is available. Ultimately, check whether the Memcache class exists or not.

e.g.

if(class_exists('Memcache')){
  // Memcache is enabled.
}

Use this code to not only check if the memcache extension is enabled, but also whether the daemon is running and able to store and retrieve data successfully:

<?php
if (class_exists('Memcache')) {
    $server = 'localhost';
    if (!empty($_REQUEST['server'])) {
        $server = $_REQUEST['server'];
    }
    $memcache = new Memcache;
    $isMemcacheAvailable = @$memcache->connect($server);

    if ($isMemcacheAvailable) {
        $aData = $memcache->get('data');
        echo '<pre>';
        if ($aData) {
            echo '<h2>Data from Cache:</h2>';
            print_r($aData);
        } else {
            $aData = array(
                'me' => 'you',
                'us' => 'them',
            );
            echo '<h2>Fresh Data:</h2>';
            print_r($aData);
            $memcache->set('data', $aData, 0, 300);
        }
        $aData = $memcache->get('data');
        if ($aData) {
            echo '<h3>Memcache seem to be working fine!</h3>';
        } else {
            echo '<h3>Memcache DOES NOT seem to be working!</h3>';
        }
        echo '</pre>';
    }
}
if (!$isMemcacheAvailable) {
    echo 'Memcache not available';
}

?>

why not use the extension_loaded() function?

I know this is an old thread, but there's another way that I've found useful for any extension.

Run

php -m | grep <module_name>

In this particular case:

php -m | grep memcache

If you want to list all PHP modules then:

php -m

Depending on your system you'd get an output similar to this:

[PHP Modules]
apc
bcmath
bz2
... lots of other modules ...
mbstring
memcache
 ... and still more modules ...
zip
zlib

[Zend Modules]

You can see that memcache is in this list.