• Not exactly clever nor pretty but this might get you close:

    with cteOriginal (CompanyName, CompName1, CompName2, CompName3)

    as

    (

    select 'A V H S L ALQUILER Y VENTA DE HOGARES', NULL, NULL, NULL union all

    select 'TAXI GIL PIERRE', NULL, NULL, NULL union all

    select 'DE GOUDSMID M HEIJKOOP', NULL, NULL, NULL union all

    select 'S P S S', NULL, NULL, NULL union all

    select 'BOUCHERIE CHARCUTERIE ST HENRI', NULL, NULL, NULL union all

    select 'A A M RODERKERKEN', NULL, NULL, NULL union all

    select 'O MUNDO E A NOSSA CASA - C H E', NULL, NULL, NULL)

    SELECT CompanyName, CompName1, CompName2

    ,CompName3=LTRIM(LEFT(CompName3, CHARINDEX(' ', CompName3 + ' ')))

    FROM (

    SELECT CompanyName, CompName1

    ,CompName2=LTRIM(LEFT(CompName2, CHARINDEX(' ', CompName2 + ' ')))

    ,CompName3=LTRIM(RIGHT(CompName2, LEN(CompName2)-LEN(LEFT(CompName2, CHARINDEX(' ', CompName2 + ' ')))))

    FROM (

    SELECT CompanyName, CompName1=REPLACE(CompName1, ' ', '')

    ,CompName2=LTRIM(SUBSTRING(CompanyName, DATALENGTH(CompName1)+1, LEN(CompanyName)))

    FROM (

    SELECT CompName1=

    CASE WHEN PATINDEX('[A-Z][ ][A-Z][ ][A-Z][ ][A-Z][ ]%', CompanyName + ' ') = 1

    THEN LEFT(CompanyName, 8)

    WHEN PATINDEX('[A-Z][ ][A-Z][ ][A-Z][ ]%', CompanyName + ' ') = 1

    THEN LEFT(CompanyName, 6)

    WHEN PATINDEX('[A-Z][ ][A-Z][ ]%', CompanyName + ' ') = 1

    THEN LEFT(CompanyName, 4)

    WHEN PATINDEX('[A-Z][ ]%', CompanyName + ' ') = 1

    THEN LEFT(CompanyName, 2)

    ELSE LEFT(CompanyName, CHARINDEX(' ', CompanyName)-1) END

    ,CompanyName

    FROM cteOriginal) a) a) a


    My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]

    My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

    My advice:
    INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
    The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

    Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
    Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
    Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
    [url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St