Custom Pairs in Emacs electric-pair-mode

Question

When writing markdown in emacs markdown-mode, I would like electric-pair-mode to automatically close
**bold** and *italic* pair syntax, i.e. when entering one * a second * should appear automatically beyond the cursor or when entering ** another ** should automatically appear beyond the cursor.

How can I achive this?

Answer 1

Adding this to your .emacs should do what you want for one *

(electric-pair-mode 1)
(defvar markdown-electric-pairs '((?* . ?*)) "Electric pairs for markdown-mode.")
(defun markdown-add-electric-pairs ()
  (setq-local electric-pair-pairs (append electric-pair-pairs markdown-electric-pairs))
  (setq-local electric-pair-text-pairs electric-pair-pairs))

(add-hook 'markdown-mode-hook 'markdown-add-electric-pairs)