I see - I can't use FLWOR just to substitute the problem area - I have to recreate from scratch? - As I mentioned earlier my actual problem XML is...

I'm not sure a function is required for this. Have you considered:

declare @ToFind varchar(10)

declare @InString varchar(20)

set @ToFind = 'llo'

set @InString = 'Hello World, Hello World'

select LEN(@InString) - CharIndex(reverse(@ToFind),reverse(@InString)) - 1

This...

@mm.

I think the answer you propose is the best I've seen so far.

I like the suggestion of using FLWOR for this - may not be nicer but an...

The XML I...

That's a nice idea and I'll have a think about it, however my real world example has these problem nodes buried quite deeply in a large xml document stored stored...