Counting No Of Words In a Column

Hi,

for some reason, i had to write a function to count the number of words in a particular column in a table. (pl find the attachment). i would like to know whether there is any other mechanism with which we can count the number of words in a particular column.

for example, if the column data is,'This Is A Test', the function, will return 4.
pl suggest any other efficient strategies to accomplish this

thanksIs this too simple?

DECLARE @.Text AS VarChar(100)
SET @.Text = 'This is a sentence'
PRINT 'Number of words: ' + CAST(LEN(@.Text) - LEN(REPLACE(@.Text, ' ', '')) +1 AS VarChar(3))|||BTW - if it isn't then it is vastly more efficient.|||Is this too simple?

DECLARE @.Text AS VarChar(100)
SET @.Text = 'This is a sentence'
PRINT 'Number of words: ' + CAST(LEN(@.Text) - LEN(REPLACE(@.Text, ' ', '')) +1 AS VarChar(3))

one more qn..

wat if the data contains blank space

e.g. : 'This Is A Sentence '|||Bol

Rtrim(ltrim())|||Bol

Rtrim(ltrim())

Thank U all for the comments...

:)|||A bigger issue would be if the text contains double spaces:
"This is a single line of text. This text contains two sentences separated by two space characters."|||A bigger issue would be if the text contains double spaces:
"This is a single line of text. This text contains two sentences separated by two space characters."
LEN(REPLACE(@.Text, ' ', ' ')) - LEN(REPLACE(REPLACE(@.Text, ' ', ' '), ' ', '')) +1 :)|||You're gonna ask about triple spaces now ain't cha?|||Yup. I am.
To make this robust, you need a loop to eliminate double spaces until none remain. And that means this should be a multi-step function rather than a simple formula.|||Does the OP live in Iceland?
http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56195&whichpage=1|||... you need a loop ...muthaf*$#%$n loops in a muthaf*$#%$n function?

next you're going to suggest using a cursor, aren't you

:)