i need to be able to have python spit out a date like this (mm/dd/yyyy) even if the user doesnt add the "/" to there input. here is what i got so far.

import string
date = raw_input(enter your date:")
print date[0:2]+'/',date[2:4]+'/',date[4:8]

the output is mm/ dd/ yyyy.

how would you go about getting rid of the blank spaces in front of dd and yyyy?

Replace the commas by plus.
What do you expect the user to enter? You may want to give some kind of a templet/hint in your prompt.

I would assign your date variable into a date type variable (I think it was something like datetime just look it up). so you will have a real date. then you can easiliy format your out put.