• Currently it's required at the end of a merge and the end of the statement prior to a CTE. REquirements may well increase in future as the T-SQL language gets more and more complex.

    p.s. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidlean/archive/2009/04/06/sql-server-nolock-hint-other-poor-ideas.aspx

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

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