strip number out of text field for reporting and grouping

I have an entity where the entry in a field might sometimes take the form "status = 5.7.1 etc etc etc" and sometimes the field will be blank or have some other entry. This number in the field is an error code and I want to report on the number of times each error code occurs.

I can create a report or view that filters on this entity where this field contains the word "status". However, how could i get it to count or group by distinct error codes. 

Would I need to create a hidden calculated field that somehow stripped out this error code and then used that to report on? All advice welcome.