Which one is better? Both functions do the same, but in slightly different ways. Interestingly, the second one takes around 4 times longer than the first one.

gistfile1.php

function convertToStringRepresentation1($value)
{
    $string      = '';
    $lines       = explode("\n", (string) $value);
    foreach ($lines as $lineCounter => $line) {
        if (empty($line)) {
            continue;
        }

        if (0 != $lineCounter) {
            $string .= '    ' . $line . "\n";
        } else {
            $string .= $line . "\n";
        }
    }

    return $string;
}


function convertToStringRepresentation2($value)
{
    return join("\n    ",
                array_filter(explode("\n", (string) $value),
                             function($line)
                             {
                                 return !empty($line);
                             }
                )
           ) . "\n";
}