placeholders.md

Placeholders

Translations can contain {name} markers that are replaced from the $context map passed to translate() / render().

// en.php => ['welcome' => 'Welcome {user}']
$lang->translate('welcome', null, ['user' => 'Ada']); // "Welcome Ada"

The context key (user) matches the marker name ({user}), without braces.

Which values are interpolated

Each context value is handled as follows:

Value type	Result
string	inserted as-is
int, float, bool	cast to string (true → "1", false → "")
null	inserted as an empty string
object with __toString() (e.g. Stringable)	its string form is inserted
array	ignored — the marker is left untouched
object without __toString()	ignored — the marker is left untouched

$lang->translate('errorMsg', null, ['code' => 2005]);
// "Something went wrong. Code : 2005"

$price = new class () implements Stringable {
    public function __toString(): string { return '€9.99'; }
};
$lang->translate('total', 'Total: {amount}', ['amount' => $price]);
// "Total: €9.99"

Unmatched markers are left intact

A marker without a matching context entry is left exactly as written — nothing is removed:

$lang->translate('welcome');                       // "Welcome {user}"
$lang->translate('welcome', null, ['other' => 1]); // "Welcome {user}"

This makes missing context easy to spot during development.

Placeholders in inline fallbacks

The inline fallback is interpolated with the same context, so you can template it too:

$lang->translate('greeting', 'Hi {user}', ['user' => 'Ada']); // "Hi Ada"

Multiple placeholders

All markers are replaced in a single pass:

// 'Order {id} for {user}'
$lang->translate('order', null, [
    'id'   => 42,
    'user' => 'Ada',
]); // "Order 42 for Ada"