UIColor Extensions

HexToUIColor1

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)
        }
    }
}

HexToUIColor2

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)