title: Find the count of words in string
body: <p>SQL: How to find the count of words in following example?</p>
  
  <pre><code>declare @s varchar(55) = 'How to find the  count  of words in this string ?'
  </code></pre>
  
  <h3>Subquestions:</h3>
  
  <ol>
  <li>How to count spaces?</li>
  <li><p>How to count double/triple/... spaces as one?   <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41874972/replacing-variable-length-string-with-some-word/41875256#41875256">answer by Gordon Linoff here</a></p></li>
  <li><p>How to avoid counting of special characters?  Example: <code>'Please , don't count this comma'</code></p></li>
  <li>Is it possible without <code>string_split</code> function (because it's available only since SQL SERVER 2016)?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <h3>Summary with the best solutions <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/57851108/6165594">HERE</a></h3>