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

swift version. Use as a Function or an Extension.

Function

  func UIColorFromRGB(colorCode: String, alpha: Float = 1.0) -> UIColor{
    var scanner = NSScanner(string:colorCode)
    var color:UInt32 = 0;
    scanner.scanHexInt(&color)
    
    let mask = 0x000000FF
    let r = CGFloat(Float(Int(color >> 16) & mask)/255.0)
    let g = CGFloat(Float(Int(color >> 8) & mask)/255.0)
    let b = CGFloat(Float(Int(color) & mask)/255.0)
    
    return UIColor(red: r, green: g, blue: b, alpha: CGFloat(alpha))
}

Extension

extension UIColor {
    convenience init(colorCode: String, alpha: Float = 1.0){
        var scanner = NSScanner(string:colorCode)
        var color:UInt32 = 0;
        scanner.scanHexInt(&color)
        
        let mask = 0x000000FF
        let r = CGFloat(Float(Int(color >> 16) & mask)/255.0)
        let g = CGFloat(Float(Int(color >> 8) & mask)/255.0)
        let b = CGFloat(Float(Int(color) & mask)/255.0)
        
        self.init(red: r, green: g, blue: b, alpha: CGFloat(alpha))
    }
}

How to call

let hexColorFromFunction = UIColorFromRGB("F4C124", alpha: 1.0)
let hexColorFromExtension = UIColor(colorCode: "F4C124", alpha: 1.0)

You can also define your Hex Color from interface builder.

Answer 2

SWIFT 4

You can create a nice convenience constructor in the extension like this:

extension UIColor {
    convenience init(hexString: String, alpha: CGFloat = 1.0) {
        var hexInt: UInt32 = 0
        let scanner = Scanner(string: hexString)
        scanner.charactersToBeSkipped = CharacterSet(charactersIn: "#")
        scanner.scanHexInt32(&hexInt)

        let red = CGFloat((hexInt & 0xff0000) >> 16) / 255.0
        let green = CGFloat((hexInt & 0xff00) >> 8) / 255.0
        let blue = CGFloat((hexInt & 0xff) >> 0) / 255.0
        let alpha = alpha

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

And use it later like

let color = UIColor(hexString: "#AABBCCDD")

Answer 3

Swift 2.0 version of solution which will handle alpha value of color and with perfect error handling is here:

func RGBColor(hexColorStr : String) -> UIColor?{

    var red:CGFloat = 0.0
    var green:CGFloat = 0.0
    var blue:CGFloat = 0.0
    var alpha:CGFloat = 1.0

    if hexColorStr.hasPrefix("#"){

        let index   = hexColorStr.startIndex.advancedBy(1)
        let hex     = hexColorStr.substringFromIndex(index)
        let scanner = NSScanner(string: hex)
        var hexValue: CUnsignedLongLong = 0

        if scanner.scanHexLongLong(&hexValue)
        {
            if hex.characters.count == 6
            {
                red   = CGFloat((hexValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16) / 255.0
                green = CGFloat((hexValue & 0x00FF00) >> 8)  / 255.0
                blue  = CGFloat(hexValue & 0x0000FF) / 255.0
            }
            else if hex.characters.count == 8
            {
                red   = CGFloat((hexValue & 0xFF000000) >> 24) / 255.0
                green = CGFloat((hexValue & 0x00FF0000) >> 16) / 255.0
                blue  = CGFloat((hexValue & 0x0000FF00) >> 8)  / 255.0
                alpha = CGFloat(hexValue & 0x000000FF)         / 255.0
            }
            else
            {
                print("invalid hex code string, length should be 7 or 9", terminator: "")
                return nil
            }
        }
        else
        {
            print("scan hex error")
       return nil
        }
    }

    let color: UIColor =  UIColor(red:CGFloat(red), green: CGFloat(green), blue:CGFloat(blue), alpha: alpha)
    return color
}

Answer 4

This is a function that takes a hex string and returns a UIColor.
(You can enter hex strings with either format: #ffffff or ffffff)

Usage:

var color1 = hexStringToUIColor("#d3d3d3")

Swift 4:

func hexStringToUIColor (hex:String) -> UIColor {
    var cString:String = hex.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines).uppercased()

    if (cString.hasPrefix("#")) {
        cString.remove(at: cString.startIndex)
    }

    if ((cString.count) != 6) {
        return UIColor.gray
    }

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

    return UIColor(
        red: CGFloat((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16) / 255.0,
        green: CGFloat((rgbValue & 0x00FF00) >> 8) / 255.0,
        blue: CGFloat(rgbValue & 0x0000FF) / 255.0,
        alpha: CGFloat(1.0)
    )
}

Swift 3:

func hexStringToUIColor (hex:String) -> UIColor {
    var cString:String = hex.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines).uppercased()

    if (cString.hasPrefix("#")) {
        cString.remove(at: cString.startIndex)
    }

    if ((cString.characters.count) != 6) {
        return UIColor.gray
    }

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

    return UIColor(
        red: CGFloat((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16) / 255.0,
        green: CGFloat((rgbValue & 0x00FF00) >> 8) / 255.0,
        blue: CGFloat(rgbValue & 0x0000FF) / 255.0,
        alpha: CGFloat(1.0)
    )
}

Swift 2:

func hexStringToUIColor (hex:String) -> UIColor {
    var cString:String = hex.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(NSCharacterSet.whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet() as NSCharacterSet).uppercaseString

    if (cString.hasPrefix("#")) {
      cString = cString.substringFromIndex(cString.startIndex.advancedBy(1))
    }

    if ((cString.characters.count) != 6) {
      return UIColor.grayColor()
    }

    var rgbValue:UInt32 = 0
    NSScanner(string: cString).scanHexInt(&rgbValue)

    return UIColor(
        red: CGFloat((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16) / 255.0,
        green: CGFloat((rgbValue & 0x00FF00) >> 8) / 255.0,
        blue: CGFloat(rgbValue & 0x0000FF) / 255.0,
        alpha: CGFloat(1.0)
    )
}

---

Source: arshad/gist:de147c42d7b3063ef7bc

Answer 5

extension UIColor 
{
    class func fromHexaString(hex:String) -> UIColor
    {
        let scanner           = Scanner(string: hex)
        scanner.scanLocation  = 0
        var rgbValue: UInt64  = 0
        scanner.scanHexInt64(&rgbValue)

        return UIColor(
            red: CGFloat((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16) / 255.0,
            green: CGFloat((rgbValue & 0x00FF00) >> 8) / 255.0,
            blue: CGFloat(rgbValue & 0x0000FF) / 255.0,
            alpha: CGFloat(1.0)
        )
    }
}

//you can call like this.

UIColor.fromHexaString(hex:3276b1)

Answer 6

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.