Question: There is a list of dates in a form combining month as a string (e.g, Jan) and date as a number (e.g., 13).

```py
a = ['20January', '14March', '3December', '1May', '17June', '2February']

```

How can I this list to Month-day format (e.g., 0120, 0314, 1203, ...) using `datetime.striptime`?

Answer: 
Code
====

```py
import datetime

a = ['20January', '14March', '3December', '1May', '17June', '2February']

for entry in a:
    print(datetime.datetime.strptime(entry, '%d%B').strftime('%m%d'))

```

Output
======

```none
0120
0314
1203
0501
0617
0202

```

<https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes>
just thought what happens when input would have make no sense,
seems to cover that well

```
import datetime

a = ['20January', '14March', '3December', '1May', '17June', '2February','31February','ekldnwld']

for entry in a:
    try:
        print(datetime.datetime.strptime(entry, '%d%B').strftime('%m%d'))
    except ValueError as ve:
        print(ve)

```

```
0120
0314
1203
0501
0617
0202
day is out of range for month
time data 'ekldnwld' does not match format '%d%B'

```