set background color from start to end char position

What would be an easy way to set the background color of all characters from some start to an end position in Java.

Eg:
red background from position D(4) to J(10)
String alpha = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'

Many thanks in advance.

Edit:

Oh no, 2 '-'? Ok her开发者_如何学编程e is what I'm doing.

JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ");
textArea.setFont(new Font("Courier", Font.PLAIN, 16));
//then I want red background from position D(4) to J(10)

please read Using Text Components and tons examples for that

look here for excelent workaround

Split the String into 3 separate Strings.

String a = alpha.substring(0,4);
String b = alpha.substring(4,11);
String c = alpha.substring(11);

Then display a,b, and c next to each other while only formatting b as desired.