minor optimization

            # Get all placeholders from mm_observation keys

            placeholders = list(mm_observation.keys())

            position_for_each_placeholder = defaultdict(list)

            placeholder_counter = 0

            if placeholders and self.processor is not None:

                record_entry["image_data"] = []

            # for each placeholder, find all occurance in template (find its position)

            # Create a list of all placeholder positions with their corresponding placeholder

            all_positions = []

            for placeholder in placeholders:

                position_for_each_placeholder[placeholder] = [m.start() for m in re.finditer(placeholder, template)]

                placeholder_counter += len(position_for_each_placeholder[placeholder])

            while placeholder_counter > 0:

                # choose the first placeholder in all positions

                first_index, first_index_placeholder = None, None

                for placeholder, positions in position_for_each_placeholder.items():

                    if positions:

                        if first_index is None:

                            first_index = positions[0]

                            first_index_placeholder = placeholder

                        elif positions[0] < first_index:

                            first_index = positions[0]

                            first_index_placeholder = placeholder

                # replace the first placeholder with <image>

                template = template[:first_index] + '<image>' + template[first_index+len(first_index_placeholder):]

                placeholder_counter -= 1

                position_for_each_placeholder[first_index_placeholder].pop(0)

                positions = [m.start() for m in re.finditer(placeholder, template)]

                for pos in positions:

                    all_positions.append((pos, placeholder))

            # Sort positions in ascending order

            all_positions.sort(key=lambda x: x[0])  # This sorts based on the first element of each tuple (position)

            # Now process in order of occurrence

            while all_positions:

                position, placeholder = all_positions.pop(0)

                template = template[:position] + '<image>' + template[position+len(placeholder):]

                if "image_data" in record_entry:

                    record_entry["image_data"].append(process_image(mm_observation[first_index_placeholder]))

                    record_entry["image_data"].append(process_image(mm_observation[placeholder]))

            record_entry["text_template"] = template