Adding html inside sprintf - php

Question

I have some code
'next_text' => sprintf( esc_html__( '%s', 'mytheme' ), '%title' ),
and I need to add html inside it. Basically I want to add
<span>Previous article</span>
before the title. How can I do this?
EDIT: The full function is
function mytheme_single_post_navigation() {
if ( ! is_singular( 'post' ) ) {
return;
}
if ( ! intval( mytheme_get_theme_mod( 'blog_single_navigation' ) ) ) {
return;
}
the_post_navigation( array(
/* translators: %s: title syntax. */
'prev_text' => sprintf( esc_html__( '%s', 'mytheme' ), '%title' ),
/* translators: %s: title syntax. */
'next_text' => sprintf( esc_html__( '%s', 'mytheme' ), '%title' ),
) );
}
endif;

Answer 1

If you want to edit the wordpress post navigation in the single.php of your posts, you can use:
<span> <?php previous_post_link( '%link', '‹ Previous article' ); ?> </span>
<span> <?php next_post_link( '%link', 'Next article ›' ); ?> </span>
If you want to make it with setting 'next_text', you can also put your outpout in a string and use this:
<?php $next_post = '<span>Previous article</span>'; ?>
and then assign it to the 'next_text':
'next_text' => $next_post
If you read sprintf() function https://www.w3schools.com/php/func_string_sprintf.asp
you can add html tags with no problem. So it could also work with:
'next_text' => sprintf( esc_html__( '%s', 'mytheme' ), '<span> %title </span>' ),
But you do not want to have the title, so you don't actualy need this, if I got your question right.
EDIT:
If you want to show the span before the name of your post, you can use:
<?php previous_post_link( '%link', '<span>Previous article</span>'.' %title' ); ?>
With the dot . you are connecting the span element with the title.
So in your code, your the_post_navigation can look like:
the_post_navigation( array(
/* translators: %s: title syntax. */
'prev_text' => sprintf( esc_html__( '%s', 'mytheme' ), '<span>Previous article</span>'.' %title' ),
/* translators: %s: title syntax. */
'next_text' => sprintf( esc_html__( '%s', 'mytheme' ), '<span>Next article</span>'.' %title' ),
) );