Alan.B (1/13/2014)

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kbhanu15 (1/9/2014)

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Hi All,

can any one clarify the difference between NOLOCK and WITH(NOLOCK) in sql server 2008 ?

which one is the best practice to use ?

Thanks

Bhanu

I think everyone did a good job explaining why you would want to avoid using read-uncommitted (AKA NOLOCK). That said, if NOLOCK is required (and getting the correct results when you run a query is not required) then I recommend always using: WITH (NOLOCK). Some things break when you omit the WITH keyword when using NOLOCK.

For example: this query would fail:

SELECT t1.<column>, t2.<column>

FROM <db>.<schema>.<table> t1

JOIN <linked server>.<db>.<schema>.<table> t2 (NOLOCK)

This would not fail:

SELECT t1.<column>, t2.<column>

FROM <db>.<schema>.<table> t1

JOIN <linked server>.<db>.<schema>.<table> t2 WITH (NOLOCK)