My problem seems to have been more of communication than entitization: I left too much to implication when I said 'do the conversion from "&" -> "&" last'. I should have been clearer about the need to translate the other two encoded values -- < and > -- FIRST. Since there are 3 values that are encoded, those same 3 values need to be decoded. And, it is just as import to encode the & first as it is to decode it last.

So, to re-run the test:

DECLARE @Before NVARCHAR(MAX),

@After NVARCHAR(MAX);

SET @Before = N'>&>>';

SET @After = REPLACE(

CAST(dbo.ShowEntireString(@Before) AS NVARCHAR(MAX)),

N'&',

N'&'

);

-- not the same, but due to missing a REPLACE on >

SELECT @Before AS [Before], @After AS [After]

SET @After =

REPLACE(

REPLACE(

REPLACE(

CAST(dbo.ShowEntireString(@Before) AS NVARCHAR(MAX)),

N'>',

N'>'

),

N'<',

N'<'

),

N'&',

N'&'

);

-- same values

SELECT @Before AS [Before], @After AS [After]

Take care,

Solomon...