undefined function anchor()

i have had the same experience as InsiteFX

going :

$data = array(
'body' => anchor($categories[$i]['link'], $categories[$i]['title'])
);

always seems to not work at all or throws an error. but putting it like InsiteFX stated works just fine

Nonsense.
Proof: http://3v4l.org/EfXT3

@davy_yg's issue is that he's overriding CI_Controller::__construct(), but not calling parent::__construct() in the override. The constructor is what triggers the autoloader.

In full agreement, you must uncomment the call to the controllers parent.