Replacing characters with smileys from echoed row

Question

I can't figure this out and isn't my strong side of codeing ether.

As of right now it'll only print the first person and timestamp, not anything more.

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tr><td></td></tr>

<?php
include '../connection.php';  



$sql = "SELECT * 
FROM messagebox
INNER JOIN person
ON messagebox.sid = person.sid
ORDER BY messagebox.id DESC
LIMIT 20
";
$query = mysql_query($sql);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($query))
{
if ($switch=='1')
{
echo "<tr bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\">";
$switch='0';
}
else
{
echo "<tr bgcolor=\"#F9F9F9\">";
$switch='1';
}

$elfstring = utf8_encode($row['shout']);

function smiley($elfstring) { 
      $elfstring = ereg_replace(":)","<img src=!.png alt=\"!\" >", $elfstring); 
      $elfstring = ereg_replace(":(","<img src=laugh.gif alt=\":D\" >", $elfstring); 
      $elfstring = ereg_replace(":p","<img src=tongue.gif alt=\":p\" >", $elfstring); 
      return $elfstrings; 

}
$messages = smiley($elfstring);

echo "";
   
echo "<td width=\"100\" valign=\"top\"><strong>" . $row['name'] . "</strong></td>";
 
echo "<td width=\"100\" valign=\"top\">" . "(" . $row['place'] .")</td>";
echo "<td width=\"70\" valign=\"top\">" . "" . date('H:i:s',strtotime ($row['timestamp'])) ."</td>";
echo "<td valign=\"top\">" . smiley($elfstrings) . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";

} 
?>

<tr>
<td>

</td>
</tr>
</table>

I know some parts of this code is deprecated, but the server using this is old and isn't up to date.

Thanks in advance for help.

The ereg_ functions have been deprecated ages ago. If you need to use regular expressions, use the preg_ functions instead. But here you have no reason to use regex, because you only want to replace static search strings - so str_replace will do. — CBroe, Sep 22 '17 at 12:27
You sure there is more then one result using that exact query? — Peter M, Sep 22 '17 at 12:28
It's supposed to print 20 lines from the messagebox, right now it's printing 1 and the message isn't echoed. — Petrus Alli, Sep 22 '17 at 12:31
Got it! Now all lines gets echoed but not the message rows, the once that the function is supposed to handle. — Petrus Alli, Sep 22 '17 at 12:44
Yeah only that part gets echoed, not the calue from the row shout after beeing handled by the function. — Petrus Alli, Sep 22 '17 at 12:51
your variable inside the smiley function is called 'elfstring'. But you are returning 'elfstrings' (notice the S at the end). The elfstrings variable doesn't exist so your function does not return anything — Wessel van der Linden, Sep 22 '17 at 13:41
@WesselvanderLinden Aha, good eyes. I figured it was something like that but didn't look through that closely. Another thing error reporting would have identified. — chris85, Sep 22 '17 at 13:50

chris85 · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-22T13:05:44.507

0

You can't declare a function multiple times. Move the function smiley(){ outside of your while loop.
You should enable error reporting and monitor your error logs.
You should indent each control block so you can easily tell where blocks end/start.
If you don't need a regex/ aren't using one don't use a regex function. The ( and ) are special regex characters and will cause errors. Use str_replace because you are doing static replacements anyway.
You can enclose strings in " or ', this can simplify string construction because you won't need to escape.

So make the ending of your script:

function smiley($elfstring) { 
      return str_replace(array(':)', ':(', ':p'),  
                         array('<img src="!.png" alt="!" >', '<img src="laugh.gif" alt=":D" >', '<img src="tongue.gif" alt=":p" >'), 
                          $elfstring); 
}

edited Sep 22 '17 at 13:05

answered Sep 22 '17 at 12:56

chris85

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That works! But how do I echo it correctly? `echo "" . smiley($elfstrings) . "";` dosen't echo anything. – Petrus Alli Sep 22 '17 at 13:02
Is `$elfstrings` actually populated? Try `var_dump($row['shout']); var_dump($elfstrings);`, what do you get? – chris85 Sep 22 '17 at 13:04
Gets NULL value on both, but they're populated in database.... Got it, I managed to delete the definition of elfstring. THX! – Petrus Alli Sep 22 '17 at 13:07

Replacing characters with smileys from echoed row

1 Answers1