diff --git a/.classpath b/.classpath
index ffc75cb..f2e3c82 100644
--- a/.classpath
+++ b/.classpath
@@ -37,14 +37,6 @@
 			<attribute name="maven.pomderived" value="true"/>
 		</attributes>
 	</classpathentry>
-	<classpathentry kind="src" path="target/generated-sources/annotations">
-		<attributes>
-			<attribute name="ignore_optional_problems" value="true"/>
-			<attribute name="optional" value="true"/>
-			<attribute name="maven.pomderived" value="true"/>
-			<attribute name="m2e-apt" value="true"/>
-		</attributes>
-	</classpathentry>
 	<classpathentry excluding="**" kind="src" output="target/classes" path="src/main/resources">
 		<attributes>
 			<attribute name="maven.pomderived" value="true"/>
@@ -56,14 +48,5 @@
 			<attribute name="maven.pomderived" value="true"/>
 		</attributes>
 	</classpathentry>
-	<classpathentry kind="src" output="target/test-classes" path="target/generated-test-sources/test-annotations">
-		<attributes>
-			<attribute name="optional" value="true"/>
-			<attribute name="maven.pomderived" value="true"/>
-			<attribute name="ignore_optional_problems" value="true"/>
-			<attribute name="m2e-apt" value="true"/>
-			<attribute name="test" value="true"/>
-		</attributes>
-	</classpathentry>
 	<classpathentry kind="output" path="target/classes"/>
 </classpath>
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c9cfd8b..0735609 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ The easiest way to use this library is to include it as a dependency in your Mav
 <dependency>
   <groupId>com.ibm.jsonata4java</groupId>
   <artifactId>JSONata4Java</artifactId>
-  <version>2.4.8</version>
+  <version>2.4.9</version>
 </dependency>
 ```
 
@@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ Note: to build and deploy the jars to Maven Central you need to use a command li
 `mvn clean install deploy -Prelease`
 
 Once you have run the launcher, you can find the jar files in the /target directory. There are two&colon;
-* **JSONata4Java-2.4.8-jar-with-dependencies.jar** (thinks includes dependent jar files)
-* **JSONata4Java-2.4.8.jar** (only the JSONata4Java code)
+* **JSONata4Java-2.4.9-jar-with-dependencies.jar** (thinks includes dependent jar files)
+* **JSONata4Java-2.4.9.jar** (only the JSONata4Java code)
 
 The com.api.jsonata4java.Tester program enables you to enter an expression and run it 
 against the same JSON as is used at the https://try.jsonata.org site. You can also 
@@ -72,10 +72,11 @@ methods are not thread-safe.
 
 Issue 260 to add support for timeoutMS and maxDepth to the evaluate methods in Expression.
 
-### New Feature for Version 2.4.8 ###
-A new function for $fromMillisZoned has been added to allow passing a Timezone string as the 3rd parameter.
+### New Feature for Version 2.4.9 ###
+The $number function was updated to allow strings with 0x, 0o, 0b prefixes for hexadecimal, octal, and binary conversions. The value returned can handle long values.
 
 ### New Feature for Version 2.4 ###
+A new function for $fromMillisZoned has been added to allow passing a Timezone string as the 3rd parameter.
 We support now a simple version of JSONata's Order-by operator (see https://docs.jsonata.org/path-operators#---order-by).
 
 ### New Features for Version 2 ###
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 791ed72..ce04651 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 	<groupId>com.ibm.jsonata4java</groupId>
 	<artifactId>JSONata4Java</artifactId>
-	<version>2.4.8</version>
+	<version>2.4.9</version>
 	<name>JSONata4Java</name>
 	<description>Port of jsonata.js to Java to enable rules for JSON content</description>
 	<url>https://github.com/IBM/JSONata4Java</url>
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
 			<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
-			<version>5.3.24</version>
+			<version>5.3.34</version>
 			<scope>test</scope>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
@@ -106,24 +106,24 @@
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
 			<artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
-			<version>2.16.1</version>
+			<version>2.17.0</version>
 		</dependency>
 		<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.fasterxml.woodstox/woodstox-core -->
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>com.fasterxml.woodstox</groupId>
 			<artifactId>woodstox-core</artifactId>
-			<version>6.6.0</version>
+			<version>6.6.2</version>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat</groupId>
 			<artifactId>jackson-dataformat-xml</artifactId>
-			<version>2.16.1</version>
+			<version>2.17.0</version>
 		</dependency>
 		<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.commons/commons-text -->
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
 			<artifactId>commons-text</artifactId>
-			<version>1.11.0</version>
+			<version>1.12.0</version>
 		</dependency>
 		<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.google.code.gson/gson -->
 		<dependency>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/api/jsonata4java/expressions/utils/NumberUtils.java b/src/main/java/com/api/jsonata4java/expressions/utils/NumberUtils.java
index 17c5ef6..fd8b827 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/api/jsonata4java/expressions/utils/NumberUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/api/jsonata4java/expressions/utils/NumberUtils.java
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /**
  * (c) Copyright 2018, 2019 IBM Corporation
- * 1 New Orchard Road, 
+ * 1 New Orchard Road,
  * Armonk, New York, 10504-1722
  * United States
  * +1 914 499 1900
@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  *
  */
-
 package com.api.jsonata4java.expressions.utils;
 
 import java.io.Serializable;
+
 import com.api.jsonata4java.expressions.EvaluateRuntimeException;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.DoubleNode;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.LongNode;
@@ -36,20 +36,19 @@ public class NumberUtils implements Serializable {
      * The convertNumberToValueNode method converts the string passed in to a
      * suitable subclass of ValueNode depending on whether it is an integer or
      * decimal.
-     * 
-     * For consistency with the JavaScript implementation of JSONata, we limit the
-     * size of the numbers that we handle to be within the range Double.MAX_VALUE
-     * and -Double.MAX_VALUE. If we did not do this we would need to implement a lot
-     * of extra code to handle BigInteger and BigDecimal.
-     * 
-     * @param number
-     *               The string representation of the number to convert
-     * @return ValueNode The ValueNode representation of the number contained in the
-     *         input string
-     * @throws EvaluateRuntimeException
-     *                                  If the number represented by the string is
-     *                                  outside of the valid range or if the string
-     *                                  does not contain a valid number.
+     *
+     * For consistency with the JavaScript implementation of JSONata, we limit
+     * the size of the numbers that we handle to be within the range
+     * Double.MAX_VALUE and -Double.MAX_VALUE. If we did not do this we would
+     * need to implement a lot of extra code to handle BigInteger and
+     * BigDecimal.
+     *
+     * @param number The string representation of the number to convert
+     * @return ValueNode The ValueNode representation of the number contained in
+     * the input string
+     * @throws EvaluateRuntimeException If the number represented by the string
+     * is outside of the valid range or if the string does not contain a valid
+     * number.
      */
     public static final ValueNode convertNumberToValueNode(String number) {
 
@@ -63,7 +62,7 @@ public static final ValueNode convertNumberToValueNode(String number) {
             // Check to see if the converted number is within the acceptable range
             if (!doubleValue.isInfinite() && !doubleValue.isNaN()) {
                 if ((doubleValue >= 0.0d && doubleValue <= Double.valueOf(Long.MAX_VALUE))
-                    || (doubleValue < 0.0d && doubleValue >= Double.valueOf(Long.MIN_VALUE))) {
+                        || (doubleValue < 0.0d && doubleValue >= Double.valueOf(Long.MIN_VALUE))) {
                     if (doubleValue - doubleValue.longValue() == 0.0d) {
                         result = new LongNode((long) doubleValue.doubleValue());
                     } else {
@@ -77,10 +76,45 @@ public static final ValueNode convertNumberToValueNode(String number) {
                 throw new EvaluateRuntimeException(msg);
             }
         } catch (NumberFormatException e2) {
+            // try conversion for other values
+            result = convertToNumber(number);
+        }
+
+        return result;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Attempts to convert a String based number representation using prefixes
+     * like 0x (hex), 0o (octal), 0b (binary)
+     *
+     * @param number
+     * @return
+     */
+    public static ValueNode convertToNumber(String number) {
+        if (number == null) {
+            final String msg = String.format(Constants.ERR_MSG_UNABLE_TO_CAST_VALUE_TO_NUMBER, number);
+            throw new EvaluateRuntimeException(msg);
+        }
+        number = number.trim().toLowerCase();
+        ValueNode result = null;
+        try {
+            if (number.startsWith("0x")) {
+                // Hexadecimal number
+                result = new LongNode(Long.parseLong(number.substring(2), 16));
+            } else if (number.startsWith("0o")) {
+                // Octal number
+                result = new LongNode(Long.parseLong(number.substring(2), 8));
+            } else if (number.startsWith("0b")) {
+                // Binary number
+                result = new LongNode(Long.parseLong(number.substring(2), 2));
+            } else {
+                // Decimal number or invalid format
+                result = new LongNode(Long.parseLong(number));
+            }
+        } catch (Exception e) {
             final String msg = String.format(Constants.ERR_MSG_UNABLE_TO_CAST_VALUE_TO_NUMBER, number);
             throw new EvaluateRuntimeException(msg);
         }
-
         return result;
     }
 }
diff --git a/tester.sh b/tester.sh
index f62f6c5..5f7d8ee 100755
--- a/tester.sh
+++ b/tester.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 #! /bin/bash
-java -cp target/JSONata4Java-2.4.8-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.api.jsonata4java.Tester $1
+java -cp target/JSONata4Java-2.4.9-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.api.jsonata4java.Tester $1
diff --git a/testerui.cmd b/testerui.cmd
index 0193db8..d90f151 100644
--- a/testerui.cmd
+++ b/testerui.cmd
@@ -1 +1 @@
-java -cp target/JSONata4Java-2.4.8-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.api.jsonata4java.testerui.TesterUI
+java -cp target/JSONata4Java-2.4.9-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.api.jsonata4java.testerui.TesterUI
diff --git a/testerui.sh b/testerui.sh
index 3bd3775..7858210 100755
--- a/testerui.sh
+++ b/testerui.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 #! /bin/bash
-java -cp target/JSONata4Java-2.4.8-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.api.jsonata4java.testerui.TesterUI
+java -cp target/JSONata4Java-2.4.9-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.api.jsonata4java.testerui.TesterUI