How can I create a UIColor from a hex string?

Question

How can I create a UIColor from a hexadecimal string format, such as #00FF00?

Answer 1

I've got a solution that is 100% compatible with the hex format strings used by Android, which I found very helpful when doing cross-platform mobile development. It lets me use one color palate for both platforms. Feel free to reuse without attribution, or under the Apache license if you prefer.

#import "UIColor+HexString.h"

@interface UIColor(HexString)

+ (UIColor *) colorWithHexString: (NSString *) hexString;
+ (CGFloat) colorComponentFrom: (NSString *) string start: (NSUInteger) start length: (NSUInteger) length;

@end


@implementation UIColor(HexString)

+ (UIColor *) colorWithHexString: (NSString *) hexString {
    NSString *colorString = [[hexString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString: @"#" withString: @""] uppercaseString];
    CGFloat alpha, red, blue, green;
    switch ([colorString length]) {
        case 3: // #RGB
            alpha = 1.0f;
            red   = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 0 length: 1];
            green = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 1 length: 1];
            blue  = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 2 length: 1];
            break;
        case 4: // #ARGB
            alpha = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 0 length: 1];
            red   = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 1 length: 1];
            green = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 2 length: 1];
            blue  = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 3 length: 1];          
            break;
        case 6: // #RRGGBB
            alpha = 1.0f;
            red   = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 0 length: 2];
            green = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 2 length: 2];
            blue  = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 4 length: 2];                      
            break;
        case 8: // #AARRGGBB
            alpha = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 0 length: 2];
            red   = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 2 length: 2];
            green = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 4 length: 2];
            blue  = [self colorComponentFrom: colorString start: 6 length: 2];                      
            break;
        default:
            [NSException raise:@"Invalid color value" format: @"Color value %@ is invalid.  It should be a hex value of the form #RBG, #ARGB, #RRGGBB, or #AARRGGBB", hexString];
            break;
    }
    return [UIColor colorWithRed: red green: green blue: blue alpha: alpha];
}

+ (CGFloat) colorComponentFrom: (NSString *) string start: (NSUInteger) start length: (NSUInteger) length {
    NSString *substring = [string substringWithRange: NSMakeRange(start, length)];
    NSString *fullHex = length == 2 ? substring : [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%@%@", substring, substring];
    unsigned hexComponent;
    [[NSScanner scannerWithString: fullHex] scanHexInt: &hexComponent];
    return hexComponent / 255.0;
}

@end