Convert Hex Color Code to NSColor

Here is two very useful macros

#define RGBA(r,g,b,a) [NSColor colorWithCalibratedRed:r/255.f green:g/255.f blue:b/255.f alpha:a/255.f]

#define NSColorFromRGB(rgbValue) [NSColor colorWithCalibratedRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 green:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 blue:((float)(rgbValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:1.0]

Here's the swift 2 compatible version of Zlatan's answer above (and +1 to him!):

func getColorFromString(webColorString : String) -> NSColor?
{
    var result : NSColor? = nil
    var colorCode : UInt32 = 0
    var redByte, greenByte, blueByte : UInt8

    // these two lines are for web color strings that start with a #
    // -- as in #ABCDEF; remove if you don't have # in the string
    let index1 = webColorString.endIndex.advancedBy(-6)
    let substring1 = webColorString.substringFromIndex(index1)

    let scanner = NSScanner(string: substring1)
    let success = scanner.scanHexInt(&colorCode)

    if success == true {
        redByte = UInt8.init(truncatingBitPattern: (colorCode >> 16))
        greenByte = UInt8.init(truncatingBitPattern: (colorCode >> 8))
        blueByte = UInt8.init(truncatingBitPattern: colorCode) // masks off high bits

        result = NSColor(calibratedRed: CGFloat(redByte) / 0xff, green: CGFloat(greenByte) / 0xff, blue: CGFloat(blueByte) / 0xff, alpha: 1.0)
    }
    return result
}

+ (NSColor*)colorWithHexColorString:(NSString*)inColorString
{
    NSColor* result = nil;
    unsigned colorCode = 0;
    unsigned char redByte, greenByte, blueByte;

    if (nil != inColorString)
    {
         NSScanner* scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:inColorString];
         (void) [scanner scanHexInt:&colorCode]; // ignore error
    }
    redByte = (unsigned char)(colorCode >> 16);
    greenByte = (unsigned char)(colorCode >> 8);
    blueByte = (unsigned char)(colorCode); // masks off high bits

    result = [NSColor
    colorWithCalibratedRed:(CGFloat)redByte / 0xff
    green:(CGFloat)greenByte / 0xff
    blue:(CGFloat)blueByte / 0xff
    alpha:1.0];
    return result;
    }

It doesn't take alpha values into account, it assumes values like "FFAABB", but it would be easy to modify.