String manipulation

Hi,

i am just gettin exposed to UNIX.
Could anyone of u help me out with dis problem..?
i have a variable 'act' which has the value as follows,

echo $act gives -0- -0- -----0---- 2008-06-04 -0- -0-
echo "$act" | awk '{print ($act)}'
gives,
-0-
-0-
-----0----
2008-06-04
-0-
-0-

I want only the value 2008-06-04 to be placed in a new variable, say data
ie data=2008-06-04

Pls help me out,
Thanks,
Jerry

data=$(echo $act | awk '{print $4}')

It works,
Thanks lots Sham