title: Using "date+'%M', whats the data type, can can I use it as a conditional?
body: <p>I'm trying to run a script where on the hour, the script would update something in my directory. So to do this, I define the a function called "min_stamp" by doing:</p>
  
  <pre><code>min_stamp(){
      date +%M"
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would then call on the function continuously in a while loop with this structure:</p>
  
  <pre><code>while:
  do
      min=min_stamp
      if [$min == 00] then
          "Update directory"
      fi
  done
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The logic is that on the hour, when the minute is 00, the script would do the specified action. So my question is what data type is returned from the function min_stamp, and am I using the variable correctly as a condition to trigger an event.</p>