SQL Oracle how to convert string to Int but also work if no value is there??

I have an SQL query. One of the columns returns a string.

But sometimes returns "" nothing.

but most times it's a number like "2383" but as a string.

I need the returned value to be converted from a string to an integer. So from 2383 to 2383.

I used the old * by 1 trick. However I found when I run the query it errors with those that have "" blanks.

Is there a better way to convert the string to a number? or another way to handle this?

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