How do I get an ISO 8601 date on iOS?

Use NSDateFormatter:

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];   
NSLocale *enUSPOSIXLocale = [NSLocale localeWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US_POSIX"];
[dateFormatter setLocale:enUSPOSIXLocale];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZZZZZ"];
[dateFormatter setCalendar:[NSCalendar calendarWithIdentifier:NSCalendarIdentifierGregorian]];

NSDate *now = [NSDate date];
NSString *iso8601String = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:now];

And in Swift:

let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
let enUSPosixLocale = Locale(identifier: "en_US_POSIX")
dateFormatter.locale = enUSPosixLocale
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZZZZZ"
dateFormatter.calendar = Calendar(identifier: .gregorian)

let iso8601String = dateFormatter.string(from: Date())

iOS 10 introduces a new NSISO8601DateFormatter class to handle just this. If you're using Swift 3, your code would be something like this:

let formatter = ISO8601DateFormatter()
let date = formatter.date(from: "2016-08-26T12:39:00Z")
let string = formatter.string(from: Date())

An often overlooked issue is that strings in ISO 8601 format might have milliseconds and might not.

In other words, both "2016-12-31T23:59:59.9999999" and "2016-12-01T00:00:00" are legit, but if you are using static-typed date formatter, one of them won't be parsed.

Starting from iOS 10 you should use ISO8601DateFormatter that handles all variations of ISO 8601 date strings. See example below:

let date = Date()
var string: String

let formatter = ISO8601DateFormatter()
string = formatter.string(from: date)

let GMT = TimeZone(abbreviation: "GMT")
let options: ISO8601DateFormatOptions = [.withInternetDateTime, .withDashSeparatorInDate, .withColonSeparatorInTime, .withTimeZone]
string = ISO8601DateFormatter.string(from: date, timeZone: GMT, formatOptions: options)

For iOS 9 and below use the following approach with multiple data formatters.

I haven't found an answer that covers both cases and abstracts away this subtle difference. Here is the solution that addresses it:

extension DateFormatter {

    static let iso8601DateFormatter: DateFormatter = {
        let enUSPOSIXLocale = Locale(identifier: "en_US_POSIX")
        let iso8601DateFormatter = DateFormatter()
        iso8601DateFormatter.locale = enUSPOSIXLocale
        iso8601DateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'"
        iso8601DateFormatter.timeZone = TimeZone(secondsFromGMT: 0)
        return iso8601DateFormatter
    }()

    static let iso8601WithoutMillisecondsDateFormatter: DateFormatter = {
        let enUSPOSIXLocale = Locale(identifier: "en_US_POSIX")
        let iso8601DateFormatter = DateFormatter()
        iso8601DateFormatter.locale = enUSPOSIXLocale
        iso8601DateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'"
        iso8601DateFormatter.timeZone = TimeZone(secondsFromGMT: 0)
        return iso8601DateFormatter
    }()

    static func date(fromISO8601String string: String) -> Date? {
        if let dateWithMilliseconds = iso8601DateFormatter.date(from: string) {
            return dateWithMilliseconds
        }

        if let dateWithoutMilliseconds = iso8601WithoutMillisecondsDateFormatter.date(from: string) {
            return dateWithoutMilliseconds
        }

        return nil
    }
}

Usage:

let dateToString = "2016-12-31T23:59:59.9999999"
let dateTo = DateFormatter.date(fromISO8601String: dateToString)
// dateTo: 2016-12-31 23:59:59 +0000

let dateFromString = "2016-12-01T00:00:00"
let dateFrom = DateFormatter.date(fromISO8601String: dateFromString)
// dateFrom: 2016-12-01 00:00:00 +0000

I also recommend checking Apple article about date formatters.

As a complement to maddy's answer, the time zone format should be "ZZZZZ" (5 times Z) for ISO 8601 instead of a single "Z" (which is for RFC 822 format). At least on iOS 6.

(see http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr35/tr35-25.html#Date_Format_Patterns)