Cadavre,
Thx for the testing scripts! Especially pointing a bug with replace function (closed as by design).
I have quite similar results
========== SomewhereSomehow ===========================================
SQL Server Execution Times:
CPU time = 19813 ms, elapsed time = 5501 ms.
========== CELKO ===========================================
SQL Server Execution Times:
CPU time = 20437 ms, elapsed time = 20529 ms.
========== Mark =====================================================
SQL Server Execution Times:
CPU time = 12891 ms, elapsed time = 3846 ms.
========== IMPROVED CELKO ===========================================
SQL Server Execution Times:
CPU time = 2859 ms, elapsed time = 2853 ms.