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

A great Swift implementation (updated for Xcode 7) using extensions, pulled together from a variety of different answers and places. You will also need the string extensions at the end.

Use:

let hexColor = UIColor(hex: "#00FF00")

NOTE: I added an option for 2 additional digits to the end of the standard 6 digit hex value for an alpha channel (pass in value of 00-99). If this offends you, just remove it. You could implement it to pass in an optional alpha parameter.

Extension:

extension UIColor {

    convenience init(var hex: String) {
        var alpha: Float = 100
        let hexLength = hex.characters.count
        if !(hexLength == 7 || hexLength == 9) {
            // A hex must be either 7 or 9 characters (#RRGGBBAA)
            print("improper call to 'colorFromHex', hex length must be 7 or 9 chars (#GGRRBBAA)")
            self.init(white: 0, alpha: 1)
            return
        }

        if hexLength == 9 {
            // Note: this uses String subscripts as given below
            alpha = hex[7...8].floatValue
            hex = hex[0...6]
        }

        // Establishing the rgb color
        var rgb: UInt32 = 0
        let s: NSScanner = NSScanner(string: hex)
        // Setting the scan location to ignore the leading `#`
        s.scanLocation = 1
        // Scanning the int into the rgb colors
        s.scanHexInt(&rgb)

        // Creating the UIColor from hex int
        self.init(
            red: CGFloat((rgb & 0xFF0000) >> 16) / 255.0,
            green: CGFloat((rgb & 0x00FF00) >> 8) / 255.0,
            blue: CGFloat(rgb & 0x0000FF) / 255.0,
            alpha: CGFloat(alpha / 100)
        )
    }
}

String extensions:
Float source
Subscript source

extension String {

    /**
    Returns the float value of a string
    */
    var floatValue: Float {
        return (self as NSString).floatValue
    }

    /**
    Subscript to allow for quick String substrings ["Hello"][0...1] = "He"
    */
    subscript (r: Range<Int>) -> String {
        get {
            let start = self.startIndex.advancedBy(r.startIndex)
            let end = self.startIndex.advancedBy(r.endIndex - 1)
            return self.substringWithRange(start..<end)
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Create elegant extension for UIColor:

extension UIColor {

convenience init(string: String) {

        var uppercasedString = string.uppercased()
        uppercasedString.remove(at: string.startIndex)

        var rgbValue: UInt32 = 0
        Scanner(string: uppercasedString).scanHexInt32(&rgbValue)

        let red = CGFloat((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16) / 255.0
        let green = CGFloat((rgbValue & 0x00FF00) >> 8) / 255.0
        let blue = CGFloat(rgbValue & 0x0000FF) / 255.0

        self.init(red: red, green: green, blue: blue, alpha: 1)
    }
}

Create red color:

let red = UIColor(string: "#ff0000") 

Answer 3

For swift 2.0+. This code works fine to me.

extension UIColor {
    /// UIColor(hexString: "#cc0000")
    internal convenience init?(hexString:String) {
        guard hexString.characters[hexString.startIndex] == Character("#") else {
            return nil
        }
        guard hexString.characters.count == "#000000".characters.count else {
            return nil
        }
        let digits = hexString.substringFromIndex(hexString.startIndex.advancedBy(1))
        guard Int(digits,radix:16) != nil else{
            return nil
        }
        let red = digits.substringToIndex(digits.startIndex.advancedBy(2))
        let green = digits.substringWithRange(Range<String.Index>(start: digits.startIndex.advancedBy(2),
            end: digits.startIndex.advancedBy(4)))
        let blue = digits.substringWithRange(Range<String.Index>(start:digits.startIndex.advancedBy(4),
            end:digits.startIndex.advancedBy(6)))
        let redf = CGFloat(Double(Int(red, radix:16)!) / 255.0)
        let greenf = CGFloat(Double(Int(green, radix:16)!) / 255.0)
        let bluef = CGFloat(Double(Int(blue, radix:16)!) / 255.0)
        self.init(red: redf, green: greenf, blue: bluef, alpha: CGFloat(1.0))
    }
}

This code includes string format checking. e.g.

let aColor = UIColor(hexString: "#dadada")!
let failed = UIColor(hexString: "123zzzz")

And as far as I know, my code is of no disadvantage for its maintaining the semantic of failible condition and returning an optional value. And this should be the best answer.

Answer 4

I've found the simplest way to do this is with a macro. Just include it in your header and it's available throughout your project.

#define UIColorFromRGB(rgbValue) [UIColor colorWithRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 green:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 blue:((float)(rgbValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:1.0]

uicolor macro with hex values

Also formatted version of this code:

#define UIColorFromRGB(rgbValue) \
[UIColor colorWithRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 \
                green:((float)((rgbValue & 0x00FF00) >>  8))/255.0 \
                 blue:((float)((rgbValue & 0x0000FF) >>  0))/255.0 \
                alpha:1.0]

Usage:

label.textColor = UIColorFromRGB(0xBC1128);

Answer 5

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 

Answer 6

I found a good UIColor category for this, UIColor+PXExtensions.

Usage: UIColor *mycolor = [UIColor pxColorWithHexValue:@"#BADA55"];

And, just in case the link to my gist fails, here is the actual implementation code:

//
//  UIColor+PXExtensions.m
//

#import "UIColor+UIColor_PXExtensions.h"

@implementation UIColor (UIColor_PXExtensions)

+ (UIColor*)pxColorWithHexValue:(NSString*)hexValue
{
    //Default
    UIColor *defaultResult = [UIColor blackColor];

    //Strip prefixed # hash
    if ([hexValue hasPrefix:@"#"] && [hexValue length] > 1) {
        hexValue = [hexValue substringFromIndex:1];
    }

    //Determine if 3 or 6 digits
    NSUInteger componentLength = 0;
    if ([hexValue length] == 3)
    {
        componentLength = 1;
    }
    else if ([hexValue length] == 6)
    {
        componentLength = 2;
    }
    else
    {
        return defaultResult;
    }

    BOOL isValid = YES;
    CGFloat components[3];

    //Seperate the R,G,B values
    for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
        NSString *component = [hexValue substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(componentLength * i, componentLength)];
        if (componentLength == 1) {
            component = [component stringByAppendingString:component];
        }
        NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:component];
        unsigned int value;
        isValid &= [scanner scanHexInt:&value];
        components[i] = (CGFloat)value / 256.0f;
    }

    if (!isValid) {
        return defaultResult;
    }

    return [UIColor colorWithRed:components[0]
                           green:components[1]
                            blue:components[2]
                           alpha:1.0];
}

@end