An easy templating (string / data merging) solution for PHP...for when a library is too much and the baked-in functions don't give you enough DRY. The example I needed replacement for is in the comment below.

renderTemplate.php

<?php

function renderTemplate($template, $data) {
    $pad_keys = create_function('$key', 'return "%" . $key . "%";');
    $data_keys = array_map($pad_keys, array_keys($data));
    $data_values = array_values($data);
    return str_replace($data_keys, $data_values, $template);
}

/*
    USAGE:
    
    $template = '<%tag% %attr% class="poster pos-%pos% %type%"><img src="%img_url%" alt="%desc%"/><span class="screen"></span></%tag%>';
    foreach($posters as $i => $poster) {
        $t_data = array(
            'tag'       =>  ($poster->link) ? 'a' : 'span',
            'attr'      =>  ($poster->link) ? 'href="' . $poster->link . '" target="_blank"' : '',
            'pos'       =>  $i,
            'type'      =>  ($i == 1) ? 'featured' : '',
            'img_url'   =>  ($i == 1) ? $poster->fields['image']['sizes']['poster'] : $poster->fields['image']['sizes']['poster-small'],
            'desc'      =>  $poster->description
        );
        echo renderTemplate($template, $t_data);
    endforeach
    
*/

by using a closure you gain twice speed : https://gist.github.com/4427022