# Make Strings Translatable
## Placeholders
### @variable
Use this style of placeholder for most use-cases. Special characters in the text will be converted to HTML entities.
```
t('Hello @name, welcome back!', array('@name' => $user->getDisplayName()));
```
Output example:
```
Hello Dries, welcome back!
```
### %variable
Use this style of placeholder to pass text through drupal_placeholder() which will result in the text being HTML escaped, and then wrapped with `<em>` tags.
```
t('The file was saved to %path.', array('%path' => $path_to_file));
```
Output example:
```
The file was saved to <em class="placeholder">sites/default/files/myfile.txt</em>.
```
### :variable
Use this style of placeholder when substituting the value of an href attribute. Values will be HTML escaped and filtered for dangerous protocols.
```
t('Hello <a href=":url">@name</a>', array(':url' => 'http://example.com', '@name' => $name));
```
Output example:
```
Hello <a href="http://example.com">Dries</a>
```