Bash - how to convert string to number?

Question

bash

Good afternoon! It is necessary to run different scripts with one command depending on the time of day.
To do this, I get hours using date
hour = date +%H
And then I try to compare with a number

if [  hour < 20 ]; then echo 'true'; else echo 'false'; fi

But since hour is a string, the comparison fails.
How can I convert a number to a string correctly? Or how can this problem be solved in another way?

Answer 1

Bash has no concept of strings/numbers. If there is a number inside, then it will parse this number.
Well, in the example from the solution, it is better to write ${todate}. And in general, it is always better to write variables in ${} - this is readable and saves you from a lot of errors.