literal math

Is there a way you know of to take a literal like *1*8*1 and turn it into the result of 1 times 8 times 1 (8)? I'm trying to do this in a connect by prior sql inside a stored procedure.

I'm using the following to get the literal: sys_connect_by_path((Qty_Per),'*')

Just curious if there is some easy way to do this, otherwise I will most likely write a function to do this.

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