Utility method for coloring text

colorize.java

public static int indexOf(CharSequence seq, int start, char ch) {
    for (int i = start; i < seq.length(); i++)
        if (ch == seq.charAt(i)) return i;
    return -1;
}


public static int indexOf(CharSequence seq, char ch) {
    return indexOf(seq, 0, ch);
}

/**
 * Recolor text according to the tags.
 * <p/>
 * E.g "Something red is after that:&#F00; red" will be processed and word red will be wrapped into red ColorSpan.
 */
public static Spanned colorize(CharSequence str) {
    SpannableStringBuilder b = new SpannableStringBuilder(str);
    Object appliedSpan = null;

    int last_start = 0;

    int start = 0;

   while ((start = indexOf(b, '&')) != -1) {

        int end;

        if ((end = indexOf(b, ';')) == -1) {
            b.delete(start, start + 1);
            continue;
        }

        if (appliedSpan != null)
            b.setSpan(appliedSpan, last_start, start, Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

        String node = b.subSequence(start + 1, end).toString();

        b.delete(start, end + 1);

        last_start = start;

        // Here you can add your own nodes.

        try {
            int color = Color.parseColor(node);
            appliedSpan = new ForegroundColorSpan(color);
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            appliedSpan = null;
        }

    }

    if (appliedSpan != null)
        b.setSpan(appliedSpan, last_start, b.length(), Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

    return b;
}