Convert NSString color name to UIColor

Question

I have a task to convert NSString color name ex:"Green" from configuration.plist file to a UIColor or a hex color code ex: "00ff00". I already have a code to convert hex color code to UIColor. I tried to use few another code sample for this task but is not working. Please help me out with a solution for this.

Answer 1

The only way this can be achieved is if you store hex color codes against color names in your app.

You can either maintain a property list or store these key value pairs in core data.

Your application would do something like this

Red:'Hex for red' Blue:'Hex for Blue' Green:'Hex for Green'

The manner in which you store these key value pairs is upto you. Now when you need to get a color from a color name, simply look up it's hex code and convert it into UIColor.

You would have to do this for all the colors that you expect in you application

Answer 2

If you are using swift you can easly develop that system. All start defining a set of possibile colors in an enum like this:

enum MyColor: String {
    case green
    case red
    case blue
    // and so on

    var hex: Int {
        switch self {
            case green: return 0xABCDF
            case red: return 0xABCDF
            case blue: return 0xABCDF
        }

    }
}

Then you need a new init for the UICOlor class that use this new enum

extension UIColor {

    convenience init(myColor: MyColor) {
        self.init(hex: myColor.raw)
    }

    init(hex: Int) {
    }
}

After that you can initilize yor colors like this:

let theColor = MyColor(rawValue: "green")
let color = UIcolor(myColor: theColor)