worksheet function - Cell value string to Int in OpenOffice Calc?

I have "1 hour", "2 hours", in a column in Calc, and I would like to extract the numbers only. I've tried VALUE(A9), but it doesn't work.

Answer

This is an Excel solution but my understanding is that Calc supports most Excel functions.

If your number always appears at the beginning of a text string and is followed by at least one space, then:

=VALUE(LEFT(A1,SEARCH(" ",A1)-1))

will extract the value from such a string in cell A1.