problem turning string into hex number

I'm hoping someone knows a little more than I do cause I can't quit seem to figure out how to get this string back to s natural hex number that is accepted by setHighlightStyle()

here is my code:




local _design = {
{ id = "00" },
{ id = "01"},
{ id = "02" },
{ id = "03" },
{ id = "04" },
{ id = "05" },
{ id = "06" },
{ id = "07" },
{ id = "08" },
{ id = "09" },

}

left = Region(0,0, 400, 640)
-- ======
for i,img in ipairs(_design) do
print(img.id)
local _new = ("0x" ..img.id.. "FF00FF")
-- which should make it a string "0x00FF00FF" which setHighlightStyle wilk not accept
-- now, if i put in each full argb color manually it works perfect, how can i make the string
-- turn back into a natural hex number?
print(_new) --print out the hex number perfectly but does not work with setHighlightStyle
setHighlightStyle(_new,true)
left:highlight()
left:highlightOff()
end


why won't it accept the string number but will accept the exact same number if I out it in manually as a natural hex written number. what am I doing wrong here? please and thanks for any advice.