String unmaskedValue = "";
String v = this.getValue();
String m = this.getMask();
if(v != null && m != null) {
try {
MaskFormatter mf = new MaskFormatter(m);
mf.setValueContainsLiteralCharacters(false);
unmaskedValue = (String) mf.stringToValue(v);
if(unmaskedValue != null) {
// MaskFormatter leaves extra white space if it's too short, not good
// for our purposes
unmaskedValue = unmaskedValue.trim();
}