Replacing characters with smileys from echoed row

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.

Solution

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); 
}