To use placeholder in any column display, you need to use 'default' property.

$col["default"] = "order id : {orderid}";

In your case it would be $col1["default"] = "order id : {orderid}";

I'm sorry, I guess I should have explained by intentions for the variable. I'm trying to execute a mysql variable before the 2nd column. It's going to see if there is a bol number assigned, if not it's going to return a different link in the 2nd column. I've tried a bunch of different ways and can't get orderid to return any value. Here is my current code:

$col1 = array();
$col1["title"] = "Order #";
$col1["name"] = "orderid";
$col1["width"] = "20";
$col1["editable"] = true;
$ordid = "{orderid}";
$cols1[] = $col1;

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM boltracking WHERE ordernum = '$ordid'") or die(mysql_error());
while($row = mysql_fetch_array( $result )) {
$bolnum = $row['bol_num'];
}
if ($bolnum == "") {
$bolnum = "Assign";
}

$col1 = array();
$col1["title"] = "BOL";
$col1["name"] = "bolnumber";
$col1["width"] = "10";
$col1["editable"] = false;
$col1["default"] = $bolnum;
if ($bolnum == "Assign") {
$col1["link"] = 'javascript:window.open("assignbol.php?order={orderid}","newwind","height=800,width=800"); void(0);';
} else {
$col1["link"] = 'javascript:window.open("bolmaker.php?order={orderid}","newwind","height=800,width=800"); void(0);';
}
$cols1[] = $col1;

You can try column event of on_data_display. Example code is mentioned on link.

http://pastebin.com/5APKEWTR

I've not tested this code and it is just to give you idea of usage.