title: How to plot timestamps in python using matplotlib?
body: <p>I have been searching about this on entire google, but it looks like I am not able to find exactly what I am looking for.</p>
  
  <p>So, basically, I have two lists: one list consists of timestamp data and a second list consists of values that correspond to that.</p>
  
  <p>Now my issue is: my timestamps are in a following format </p>
  
  <pre><code>['Mon Sep 1 16:40:20 2015', 'Mon Sep 1 16:45:20 2015',
   'Mon Sep 1 16:50:20 2015', 'Mon Sep 1 16:55:20 2015'] 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So, which time format is used in <code>matplotlib</code>? I tried to plot this straightaway but it gives me:</p>
  
  <pre><code>ValueError: invalid literal 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can I use <code>datetime.datetime.strptime</code> to convert it? If not, then what is the other way of doing it?</p>
  
  <p>After converting the <code>timestamp</code> in the proper format, how should I plot the new converted timestamp with it's corresponding value?</p>
  
  <p>Can I use <code>matplotlib.pyplot.plot(time, data)</code> or do I have to use <code>plot_date</code> method to plot it?</p>