Setting alpha on UIView sets the alpha on its subviews which should not happen

Question

According to the documentation for UIVIew @property(nonatomic) CGFloat alpha

The value of this property is a floating-point number in the

Answer 1

In swift

view.backgroundColor = UIColor.whiteColor().colorWithAlphaComponent(0.5)

UPDATED FOR SWIFT 3

view.backgroundColor = UIColor.white.withAlphaComponent(0.5)