Snapshot backups by a SAN product maybe?

And then it actually turns out the string to be searched is actually a column in a table with a million rows of data.

You mean like this?

if OBJECT_ID('dbo.MyEmployees') is not null
  DROP TABLE dbo.MyEmployees;
CREATE TABLE dbo.MyEmployees
(
 MaterialID nvarchar(300 ) NOT NULL,
 MaterialRowID nvarchar(300 ) NOT NULL...

Read this: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188357.aspx

If that does not help, search Books Online.

Based on what you have posted, I don't see how.  The queries are not even related to each other.  They are from different tables, with different parameters, and do not...

First, you need the following itvf:

USE [Sandbox]
GO

/****** Object:  UserDefinedFunction [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]    Script Date: 3/3/2017 1:25:30 PM ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

 CREATE FUNCTION...