Because off another thread I thougth about this puzzle.

Because the puzzle is solved mainly using a lot of REPLACE functions.

Analytical I had allready determined that there would never be a four in the string. But I still build in a safeguard in case I had made a mistake in the analys or otherwise.

Also I build in a length restriction and a number of loops restriction.

The string does not continue to grow (was supprised a little bit by that). It starts 'repeating' itself after a few loops.

ADDITIONAL, my conclusion that the string does not continue to grow was not correct. So I should have investigated further, before jumping to that conclusion. 20130124 13:47 (Sorry::crying:)

Maybe my next 'project' is building a Turing machine based on the replace only. (The length of the bittape will be limited and not be endless as in the Turing machine).

Ben Brugmen.

declare @continue int = 1

declare @DeString varchar(4000) = '1'

declare @counter int = 0

While @continue = 1

begin

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '1111','fourone')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '111','threeone')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '11','twoone')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '1','oneone')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '2222','fourtwo')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '222','threetwo')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '22','twotwo')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '2','onetwo')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '3333','fourthree')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '333','threethree')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '33','twothree')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, '3','onethree')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, 'three','3')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, 'two','2')

set @DeString = REPLACE(@destring, 'one','1')

print convert(varchar(4),@counter)+' '+convert(varchar(20),datalength(@destring)) +' ' +

convert(varchar(200),@destring)

set @counter = @counter + 1

if @counter > 100 begin set @continue = 0 end

if @DeString like '%four%' begin set @continue = 0 end

if datalength(@destring)>2000 begin set @continue = 0 end

end