Convert hex color to RGB values in PHP

Question

What would be a good way to convert hex color values like #ffffff into the single RGB values 255 255 255 using PHP?

Answer 1

This is the only solution that worked for me. Some of the answers were not consistent enough.

    function hex2rgba($color, $opacity = false) {

        $default = 'rgb(0,0,0)';

        //Return default if no color provided
        if(empty($color))
              return $default;

        //Sanitize $color if "#" is provided
            if ($color[0] == '#' ) {
                $color = substr( $color, 1 );
            }

            //Check if color has 6 or 3 characters and get values
            if (strlen($color) == 6) {
                    $hex = array( $color[0] . $color[1], $color[2] . $color[3], $color[4] . $color[5] );
            } elseif ( strlen( $color ) == 3 ) {
                    $hex = array( $color[0] . $color[0], $color[1] . $color[1], $color[2] . $color[2] );
            } else {
                    return $default;
            }

            //Convert hexadec to rgb
            $rgb =  array_map('hexdec', $hex);

            //Check if opacity is set(rgba or rgb)
            if($opacity){
                if(abs($opacity) > 1)
                    $opacity = 1.0;
                $output = 'rgba('.implode(",",$rgb).','.$opacity.')';
            } else {
                $output = 'rgb('.implode(",",$rgb).')';
            }

            //Return rgb(a) color string
            return $output;
    }
    //hex2rgba("#ffaa11",1)