regex - How to identify a given string is hex color format

Question

I'm looking for a regular expression to validate hex colors in ASP.NET C# and
am also looking code for validation on server side.

For instance: #CCCCCC

Answer 1

Note: This is strictly for validation, i.e. accepting a valid hex color. For actual parsing you won't get the individual parts out of this.

^#(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{3}){1,2}$

For ARGB:

^#(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{3,4}){1,2}$

Dissection:

^              anchor for start of string
#              the literal #
(              start of group
 ?:            indicate a non-capturing group that doesn't generate backreferences
 [0-9a-fA-F]   hexadecimal digit
 {3}           three times
)              end of group
{1,2}          repeat either once or twice
$              anchor for end of string

This will match an arbitrary hexadecimal color value that can be used in CSS, such as #91bf4a or #f13.