What are some best practices for efficiently replacing template variables in PHP to avoid errors and improve performance?

When replacing template variables in PHP, it is important to efficiently handle the replacement process to avoid errors and improve performance. One best practice is to use the str_replace function instead of regular expressions for simple variable replacements. Additionally, using an associative array to store the template variables can make the replacement process more organized and easier to manage.

// Define the template variables
$variables = array(
    'name' => 'John Doe',
    'age' => 30
);

// Define the template string
$template = 'Hello, my name is {name} and I am {age} years old.';

// Replace the template variables
foreach ($variables as $key => $value) {
    $template = str_replace('{' . $key . '}', $value, $template);
}

// Output the replaced template
echo $template;