Performance efficient function to strip punctuation marks

Hi,

We are looking at a scenario of stripping a set of columns (like address for example) of a certain set of punctuation marks. We are currently using a user-defined scalar function containing a set of simple replace statements for this purpose. We are looking at a base table consisting of lakhs of records and we need to obtain this punctuation stripped data across a set of 10 columns.

This activity is turning out to be performance degrading and I am looking at the option of rewriting this function in a performance efficient manner.

PFB the function currenly being used:

Create function [dbo].[ufn_RemovePunctuation]     
(    
@String varchar (255)    
)    
returns varchar(255)    
as    
Begin      
 if(@string is NULL or @string='')    
  set @string=''    
 else if(@string like '%[^a-z][^0-9]%')    
 begin    
  set @String = replace(@String, ',', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '&', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '.', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '~', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '''s', ' S')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '''', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '"', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, ';', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '-', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, 'c/o', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '/', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '(', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, ')', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '   ', ' ')    
  set @String = replace(@String, '  ', ' ')    
  set @String = ltrim(rtrim(@String))   
 end   
 Return @String    
End GO
------------------
DECLARE @List TABLE (Word nvarchar(200))
INSERT @List VALUES ('Jay c/o jk, No. ~226 (first & second cross street''s ) - "Block 1/2"; ') -->Jay jk No 226 first second cross street S Block 1 2
INSERT @List VALUES ('- "~Happy" ;') -->HappyINSERT @List VALUES ('Very Happy')-->VERY Happy

SELECT word,dbo.ufn_RemovePunctuation(word) FROM @List

Have already tried out the approach of having the symbols in a table variable and using a select statement to manipulate the @string variable. No luck! :(

Any leads or help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Thanks,
Jay
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