SQL Server 2017

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CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K_LEAD]
--===== Define I/O parameters
        (@pString VARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiter CHAR(1))
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
 RETURN
--===== "Inline" CTE Driven "Tally Table produces values from 0 up to 10,000...
     -- enough to cover VARCHAR(8000)
 WITH E1(N) AS (
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL 
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL 
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
                ),                          --10E+1 or 10 rows
       E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
       E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max
 cteTally(N) AS (--==== This provides the "zero base" and limits the number of rows right up front
                     -- for both a performance gain and prevention of accidental "overruns"
                 SELECT 0 UNION ALL
                 SELECT TOP (DATALENGTH(ISNULL(@pString,1))) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
                ),
cteStart(N1) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)
                 SELECT t.N+1
                   FROM cteTally t
                  WHERE (SUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) = @pDelimiter OR t.N = 0) 
                )
--===== Do the actual split. The ISNULL/NULLIF combo handles the length for the final element when no delimiter is found.
 SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY s.N1),
        Item = SUBSTRING(@pString,s.N1,ISNULL(NULLIF((LEAD(s.N1,1,1) OVER (ORDER BY s.N1) - 1),0)-s.N1,8000))
   FROM cteStart s;

Column1	Column2	Column3	Column4
header1	header2	header3	header4
datacolumn1	datacolumn2	datacolumn3	datacolumn4
datacolumn1	datacolumn2	datacolumn3	datacolumn4

Warning: Null value is eliminated by an aggregate or other SET operation.