1 (small) loop (but not row-by-row), using temporary lookup table, can handle variable lengths

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Create table #HexToAlpha

(

recordid dec(5,0) identity(1,1)

, hexstring varchar(20)

, alphastring varchar(10)

)

Insert...

The first thing is that if your structure is as you say, you aren't taking full advantage of what a Relational DB is all about. Anyway, if you can't change...