How to convert UIColor value to NSString?

Question

Hi, in run time i need to convert UIColor to NSString ..is there any method..any help?

i tried

 NSString *colorString = NSStringFromClass([[UIColor redColor] class]);

colorString did not give @"redColor"

Answer 1

What do you want to do that for? Have a look at generic -desciption method for a start

UIColor* someColor = ...//Initialize color
NSString* colorString = [someColor description];

Answer 2

How about this:

- (NSString *)stringForColor:(UIColor *)color {
    CGColorRef c = color.CGColor;
    const CGFloat *components = CGColorGetComponents(c);
    size_t numberOfComponents = CGColorGetNumberOfComponents(c);
    NSMutableString *s = [[[NSMutableString alloc] init] autorelease];
    [s appendString:@"{"];
    for (size_t i = 0; i < numberOfComponents; ++i) {
        if (i > 0) {
            [s appendString:@","];
        }
        [s appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%f", components[i]]];
    }
    [s appendString:@"}"];
    return s;
}

For example, stringForColor:[UIColor greenColor] has the result "{0.000000,1.000000,0.000000,1.000000}".

Answer 3

UIColor *color = value;
const CGFloat *components = CGColorGetComponents(color.CGColor);
NSString *colorAsString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%f,%f,%f,%f", components[0], components[1], components[2], components[3]];

Done.

If you want to convert the string back to a UIColor object:

NSArray *components = [colorAsString componentsSeparatedByString:@","];
CGFloat r = [[components objectAtIndex:0] floatValue];
CGFloat g = [[components objectAtIndex:1] floatValue];
CGFloat b = [[components objectAtIndex:2] floatValue];
CGFloat a = [[components objectAtIndex:3] floatValue];
UIColor *color = [UIColor colorWithRed:r green:g blue:b alpha:a];

Are you storing a UIColor object as an attribute in Core Data? If so, check out my answer to this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2304882/core-data-data-model-attribute-type-for-uicolor/3172363#3172363