title: How to convert words to a number?
body: <p>I want to convert words containing alphabetical characters into a representative number in Java.  </p>
  
  <p>For example, <code>four hundred four</code> should evaluate to the number <code>404</code>.</p>
  
  <p>If the letters are gibberish like <code>asdf</code> then that's an error.</p>
  
  <p>I know I can <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19388037/converting-characters-to-integers-in-java">convert bare Characters to their ascii equivalent Integer</a>, appending those together, but I only want the numbers behind the English word phrases extracted.</p>