Question

Given a string of a valid CSS color value:

• #fff
• #ffffff
• white
• rgb(255, 255, 255)

I need to get an array of numbers of the following format: [R, G, B]

What is the most efficient way of doing this in JavaScript (assuming a major browser)?

Answer 1

function parseColor(input) {
    var m;

Obviously, the numeric values will be easier to parse than names. So we do those first.

    m = input.match(/^#([0-9a-f]{3})$/i)[1];
    if( m) {
        // in three-character format, each value is multiplied by 0x11 to give an
        // even scale from 0x00 to 0xff
        return [
            parseInt(m.charAt(0),16)*0x11,
            parseInt(m.charAt(1),16)*0x11,
            parseInt(m.charAt(2),16)*0x11
        ];
    }

That’s one. Now for the full six-digit format:

    m = input.match(/^#([0-9a-f]{6})$/i)[1];
    if( m) {
        return [
            parseInt(m.substr(0,2),16),
            parseInt(m.substr(2,2),16),
            parseInt(m.substr(4,2),16)
        ];
    }

And now for rgb() format:

    m = input.match(/^rgb\s*\(\s*(\d+)\s*,\s*(\d+)\s*,\s*(\d+)\s*\)$/i);
    if( m) {
        return [m[1],m[2],m[3]];
    }

Optionally, you can also add support for rgba format, and even hsl/hsla if you add an HSL2RGB conversion function.

Finally, the named colours.

    return ({
        "red":[255,0,0],
        "yellow":[255,255,0],
        // ... and so on. Yes, you have to define ALL the colour codes.
    })[input];

And close the function:

}

---

Actually, I don’t know why I bothered writing all that. I just noticed you specified “assuming a major browser”, I’m assuming that also means “up-to-date”? If so…

function parseColor(input) {
    var div = document.createElement('div'), m;
    div.style.color = input;
    m = getComputedStyle(div).color.match(/^rgb\s*\(\s*(\d+)\s*,\s*(\d+)\s*,\s*(\d+)\s*\)$/i);
    if( m) return [m[1],m[2],m[3]];
    else throw new Error("Colour "+input+" could not be parsed.");
}

An up-to-date browser will convert any given colour to rgb() format in its computed style. Just get it back, and read it out.