How can outdated code affect the functionality of PHP functions like ereg_replace()?

Outdated code can affect the functionality of PHP functions like ereg_replace() because it has been deprecated in newer PHP versions. To solve this issue, you should replace ereg_replace() with the preg_replace() function, which is the recommended alternative for regular expression operations in PHP.

// Using preg_replace() instead of ereg_replace()
$pattern = '/\b(\w+)\b/';
$replacement = '<b>$1</b>';
$string = 'Hello World';
$result = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $string);
echo $result;