date output store in variable problem

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

When I run following command
date
Output1 => Thu Sep 9 03:26:52 IST 2010
When I store in a varibale as
a=`date`
echo $a
output2 => Thu Sep 9 03:27:02 IST 2010
The differnece is, it is trimming the space when I am storing the output in varibale.
Output1 = Thu Sep 9 03:26:52 IST 2010
Output2 = Thu Sep 9 03:27:02 IST 2010
I want the exact output to be stored in the variable. Please help.
Regards
Pravin

2

That might be:

echo "$a"
3

Thanks a lot.
Pravin