Now we're cooking with gas! Well done! I had eye surgery today (lens replacement) and can't see so well yet and can't spend much time in front of the computer but I'll run some additional tests over the weekend using variable length data and see what happens.
We also need to try the same thing on Alan's good pattern matching code.
As Eirikur suggests, this is an example of the SQL Server Community (same initials as SQL Server Central :-)) at it's best. Keep 'em coming folks!
BTW, that's one heck of a nice machine you have there, Eirikur!
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.