Get current local time in UTC and set to Binary operator like >= or < - swift

Question

Bear with me, I'm a newbie to iOS development; I'm currently trying to get the current time in UTC based on the device's local time, and set it in an if / else statement based on the whatever the current time in UTC is.
I've tried the below:
let UTCdate = Date()
if (UTCdate >= 13 && UTCdate < 23 {
// do something
}
It's giving me the error that "Binary operator '>=' cannot be applied to operands of type 'Date' and 'Int'
I know I'm doing something wrong, just don't know what. Apologies if this has already been asked. I google'd to the best of my abilities.

Answer 1

You need to extract the hour from your date. Date is a timestamp, not an hour. And you need to make sure you extract the hour in the UTC timezone and not locale time.
The following will do what you need:
// Create a calendar with the UTC timezone
var utcCal = Calendar(identifier: Calendar.current.identifier) // or hardcode .gregorian if appropriate
utcCal.timeZone = TimeZone(secondsFromGMT: 0)!
// The current date
let date = Date()
// Get the hour (it will be UTC hour)
let hour = utcCal.component(.hour, from: date)
if hour >= 13 && hour < 23 {
}
If you just use the current calendar to extra the hour from date you will get the hour in local time. That is the reason we created a new calendar specific to the UTC timezone (since that is your requirement).
Based on some comments you may not actually want UTC. Simply set the timeZone to whatever timezone you actually need.
If you want Chicago time, use:
utcCal.timeZone = TimeZone(identifier: "America/Chicago")!
And an alternate to creating your own calendar instance is to use:
let hour = Calendar.current.dateComponents(in: TimeZone(secondsFromGMT: 0)!, from: date).hour!
Again, use whatever timezone you need.

Answer 2

You said "I'm currently trying to get the current time in UTC based on the device's local time". You seem not to understand a key thing about Date objects in Cocoa. A Date is an instant in time, anywhere on the planet. It doesn't have a time zone. Internally it's represented as an offset from a moment in time that's expressed in UTC, known as the "epoch date", but that's an implementation detail. Imagine that when I capture a Date using the call Date(), I snap my fingers and the sound of the finger snap is heard all around the world at the same instant, without even speed-of-light delay. The finger snap is the moment that the call to Date() captures.
If I use the code let date = Date() I capture the current time all over the planet. A Date object doesn't have a specific time of day unless I convert it to a specific time zone. As others have suggested, the Calendar method dateComponents(in:from:) will let you extract components like the hour in a specific time zone from a Date, but you need to understand how all this works or you're going to get confused.
I suggest searching on the phrase "Calendrical Calculations" in the Xcode help system and reading that section of the docs. It's very helpful.