title: datetime command line argument in python 2.4
body: <p>I want to pass a datetime value into my python script on the command line. My first idea was to use optparse and pass the value in as a string, then use datetime.strptime to convert it to a datetime. This works fine on my machine (python 2.6), but I also need to run this script on machines that are running python 2.4, which doesn't have datetime.strptime.</p>
  
  <p>How can I pass the datetime value to the script in python 2.4?</p>
  
  <p>Here's the code I'm using in 2.6:</p>
  
  <pre><code>parser = optparse.OptionParser()
  parser.add_option("-m", "--max_timestamp", dest="max_timestamp",
                    help="only aggregate items older than MAX_TIMESTAMP", 
                    metavar="MAX_TIMESTAMP(YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MM)")
  options,args = parser.parse_args()
  if options.max_timestamp:
      # Try parsing the date argument
      try:
          max_timestamp = datetime.datetime.strptime(options.max_timestamp, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")
      except:
          print "Error parsing date input:",sys.exc_info()
          sys.exit(1)
  </code></pre>