How do I strtotime in python?

Try this:

For use with the datetime module, documentation here

>>>import datetime
>>>a = u'11/5/2003'
>>>time1 = datetime.datetime.strptime(a, "%m/%d/%Y")
>>>print time1
datetime.datetime(2003, 11, 5, 0, 0)

In ipython:

In [1]: import datetime

In [2]: a = u'11/5/2003'

In [3]: time1 = datetime.datetime.strptime(a, "%m/%d/%Y")

In [4]: print time1
2003-11-05 00:00:00

Use with the time module, documentation here

>>>import time
>>>a = u'11/5/2003'
>>>time1 = time.strptime(a, "%m/%d/%Y")
>>>print time1
time.struct_time(tm_year=2003, tm_mon=11, tm_mday=5, tm_hour=0, tm_min=0, tm_sec=0, tm_wday=2, tm_yday=309, tm_isdst=-1)

strptime() is definitely the right approach, it's just a class method for the datetime class (confusingly part of the datetime module).

That is, datetime.datetime.strptime() is what you're looking for (and not datetime.strptime().