Does PHP have a feature like Python's template strings?

You could also use strtr:

$template = '$who likes $what';

$vars = array(
  '$who' => 'tim',
  '$what' => 'kung pao',
);

echo strtr($template, $vars);

Outputs:

tim likes kung pao

You can use template strings like this:

$name = "Maria";
$info["last_name"] = "Warner";

echo "Hello {$name} {$info["last_name"]}";

This will echo Hello Maria Warner.

I think there are a bunch of ways to do this... but this comes to mind.

$search = array('%who%', '%what_id%');
$replace = array('tim', 'kung pao');
$conference_target = str_replace(
    $search,
    $replace,
    "%who% likes %what%"
);

Ha, we even had one in our framework using vsprintf:

class Helper_StringFormat {

    public static function sprintf($format, array $args = array()) {

        $arg_nums = array_slice(array_flip(array_keys(array(0 => 0) + $args)), 1);

        for ($pos = 0; preg_match('/(?<=%)\(([a-zA-Z_]\w*)\)/', $format, $match, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, $pos);) {
            $arg_pos = $match[0][2];
            $arg_len = strlen($match[0][0]);
            $arg_key = $match[1][0];

            if (! array_key_exists($arg_key, $arg_nums)) {
                user_error("sprintfn(): Missing argument '${arg_key}'", E_USER_WARNING);
                return false;
            }
            $format = substr_replace($format, $replace = $arg_nums[$arg_key] . '$', $arg_pos, $arg_len);
            $pos = $arg_pos + strlen($replace);
        }

        return vsprintf($format, array_values($args));
    }
}

Which looks like it came from the sprintf page

This allows for calls like:

sprintfn('second: %(second)s ; first: %(first)s', array(
    'first' => '1st',
    'second'=> '2nd'
));

UPDATE
Here is an update to do what you want... not fully tested though

class Helper_StringFormat {

    public static function sprintf($format, array $args = array()) {
        $arg_nums = array_slice(array_flip(array_keys(array(0 => 0) + $args)), 1);

        for ($pos = 0; preg_match('/(?<=%)\(([a-zA-Z_][\w\s]*)\)/', $format, $match, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, $pos);) {
            $arg_pos = $match[0][1];
            $arg_len = strlen($match[0][0]);
            $arg_key = $match[1][0];

            if (! array_key_exists($arg_key, $arg_nums)) {
                user_error("sprintfn(): Missing argument '${arg_key}'", E_USER_WARNING);
                return false;
            }
            $format = substr_replace($format, $replace = $arg_nums[$arg_key] . '$', $arg_pos, $arg_len);
            $pos = $arg_pos + strlen($replace); // skip to end of replacement for next iteration
        }

        return vsprintf($format, array_values($args));
    }
}

$str = "%(my var)s now work with a slight %(my var2)s";
$repl = array("my var" => "Spaces", "my var2" => "modification.");

echo Helper_StringFormat::sprintf($str, $repl);

OUTPUT
Spaces now work with a slight modification.