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

There's a nice post on how to tackle the OP's question of extracting a UIColor from a hex string. The solution presented below is different from others because it supports string values that may include '0x' or '#' prefixed to the hex string representation... (see usage)

Here's the main bit...

- (UIColor *)getUIColorObjectFromHexString:(NSString *)hexStr alpha:(CGFloat)alpha
{
  // Convert hex string to an integer
  unsigned int hexint = [self intFromHexString:hexStr];

  // Create a color object, specifying alpha as well
  UIColor *color =
    [UIColor colorWithRed:((CGFloat) ((hexint & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255
    green:((CGFloat) ((hexint & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255
    blue:((CGFloat) (hexint & 0xFF))/255
    alpha:alpha];

  return color;
}

Helper method...

- (unsigned int)intFromHexString:(NSString *)hexStr
{
  unsigned int hexInt = 0;

  // Create scanner
  NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:hexStr];

  // Tell scanner to skip the # character
  [scanner setCharactersToBeSkipped:[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"#"]];

  // Scan hex value
  [scanner scanHexInt:&hexInt];

  return hexInt;
}

Usage:

NSString *hexStr1 = @"123ABC";
NSString *hexStr2 = @"#123ABC";
NSString *hexStr3 = @"0x123ABC";

UIColor *color1 = [self getUIColorObjectFromHexString:hexStr1 alpha:.9];
NSLog(@"UIColor: %@", color1);

UIColor *color2 = [self getUIColorObjectFromHexString:hexStr2 alpha:.9];
NSLog(@"UIColor: %@", color2);

UIColor *color3 = [self getUIColorObjectFromHexString:hexStr3 alpha:.9];
NSLog(@"UIColor: %@", color3);

Complete Reference Article

Swift 2+

I've ported this solution to Swift 2.2. Note that I've changed the alpha parameter to use a default set to 1.0. I've also updated the int type to UInt32 as required by the NSScanner class in Swift 2.2.

func colorWithHexString(hexString: String, alpha:CGFloat = 1.0) -> UIColor {

    // Convert hex string to an integer
    let hexint = Int(self.intFromHexString(hexString))
    let red = CGFloat((hexint & 0xff0000) >> 16) / 255.0
    let green = CGFloat((hexint & 0xff00) >> 8) / 255.0
    let blue = CGFloat((hexint & 0xff) >> 0) / 255.0 

    // Create color object, specifying alpha as well
    let color = UIColor(red: red, green: green, blue: blue, alpha: alpha)
    return color
}

func intFromHexString(hexStr: String) -> UInt32 {
    var hexInt: UInt32 = 0
    // Create scanner
    let scanner: NSScanner = NSScanner(string: hexStr)
    // Tell scanner to skip the # character
    scanner.charactersToBeSkipped = NSCharacterSet(charactersInString: "#")
    // Scan hex value
    scanner.scanHexInt(&hexInt)
    return hexInt
}

Swift 4+

Using the same logic with changes applied for swift 4,

func colorWithHexString(hexString: String, alpha:CGFloat = 1.0) -> UIColor {

    // Convert hex string to an integer
    let hexint = Int(self.intFromHexString(hexStr: hexString))
    let red = CGFloat((hexint & 0xff0000) >> 16) / 255.0
    let green = CGFloat((hexint & 0xff00) >> 8) / 255.0
    let blue = CGFloat((hexint & 0xff) >> 0) / 255.0

    // Create color object, specifying alpha as well
    let color = UIColor(red: red, green: green, blue: blue, alpha: alpha)
    return color
}

func intFromHexString(hexStr: String) -> UInt32 {
    var hexInt: UInt32 = 0
    // Create scanner
    let scanner: Scanner = Scanner(string: hexStr)
    // Tell scanner to skip the # character
    scanner.charactersToBeSkipped = CharacterSet(charactersIn: "#")
    // Scan hex value
    scanner.scanHexInt32(&hexInt)
    return hexInt
}

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