question: public static Number extractNumber ( Object value ) { NumberFormat numberFormat = NumberFormat . getInstance ( ) ; if ( value instanceof Number ) { return ( Number ) value ; } else if ( value == null ) { return new Long ( 0 ) ; } else { try { return numberFormat . parse ( value . toString ( ) ) ; } catch ( ParseException ex ) { DTThrowable . rethrow ( ex ) ; } } return new Long ( 0 ) ; }
target:  returns the number value of the supplied object