B4J Code Snippet [B4X] [BCTextEngine] Custom formatting rules

I am working on a new feature for my app, whatsapp has had this feature for a long time.

If the user enters 2 stars before a word and 2 stars after the word, the text will be displayed in bold. The same if the user enters a dash and a space, then it becomes a list.

Together with my brain and the neural network of ChatGPT I have written the following function:

Private Sub FormatText(Text As String) As String
    ' ***TextColor***
    ' Define the BBCode for the text color based on the current theme
    Dim LeftText As String = $"[color=#${ColorToHex(xui.Color_Black)}]"$
    Dim RightText As String = "[/color]"

    ' Initialize the result text builder
    Dim ResultText As StringBuilder
    ResultText.Initialize

    ' Temporary variables
    Dim TempText As String = Text
    Dim IsInList As Boolean = False  ' Flag to track if we are inside a list

    ' Split the input text into lines for line-by-line processing
    Dim Lines() As String = Regex.Split(CRLF, TempText)
    For Each Line As String In Lines
        ' Check if the line is a list item (starts with "- ")
        If Line.Trim.StartsWith("- ") Then
            ' Extract the list item content by removing "- " and trimming
            Dim ListItem As String = Line.Trim.SubString(2).Trim
            If IsInList = False Then
                ' If not already in a list, start a new list
                ResultText.Append("[list]").Append(CRLF)
                IsInList = True
            End If
            ' Append the list item to the result
            ResultText.Append("[*] ").Append(ListItem).Append(CRLF)
        Else
            ' If the current line is not a list item, close any open list
            If IsInList Then
                ResultText.Append("[/list]").Append(CRLF)
                IsInList = False
            End If
            ' Check for bold text within the current line
            Dim StartPos As Int = 0
            Do While StartPos < Line.Length
                ' Find the start of bold text (indicated by **)
                Dim BoldStart As Int = Line.IndexOf2("**", StartPos)
                If BoldStart = -1 Then
                    ' No more bold text; append the remaining line as plain text
                    ResultText.Append("[Plain]").Append(Line.SubString(StartPos)).Append("[/Plain]")
                    Exit
                End If

                ' Append plain text before the bold text
                If BoldStart > StartPos Then
                    ResultText.Append("[Plain]").Append(Line.SubString2(StartPos, BoldStart)).Append("[/Plain]")
                End If

                ' Find the end of the bold text
                Dim BoldEnd As Int = Line.IndexOf2("**", BoldStart + 2)
                If BoldEnd = -1 Then
                    ' If no closing ** is found, treat the rest of the line as plain text
                    ResultText.Append("[Plain]").Append(Line.SubString(BoldStart)).Append("[/Plain]")
                    Exit
                End If

                ' Append the bold text
                ResultText.Append("[b]").Append(Line.SubString2(BoldStart + 2, BoldEnd)).Append("[/b]")

                ' Move the start position to the end of the bold text
                StartPos = BoldEnd + 2
            Loop
            ' Append a line break after processing the current line
            ResultText.Append(CRLF)
        End If
    Next

    ' If there is an open list at the end of the text, close it
    If IsInList Then
        ResultText.Append("[/list]").Append(CRLF)
    End If

    ' Return the final formatted text wrapped with the color tags
    Return LeftText & ResultText.ToString & RightText
End Sub


Public Sub ColorToHex(clr As Int) As String
    Dim bc As ByteConverter
    Dim Hex As String = bc.HexFromBytes(bc.IntsToBytes(Array As Int(clr)))
    If Hex.Length > 6 Then Hex = Hex.SubString(Hex.Length - 6)
    Return Hex
End Sub

The result looks like this:

The input is:

This is a **Test** the text should be bold
and this is a list:
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Item 3
nice

If anyone has a more efficient way to achieve this I would be very grateful as it is a lot of code for such a small feature.