SQL Server NOLOCK and joins

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Background: I have a performance-critical query I'd like to run and I don't care about dirty reads.

My question is; If I'm using joins, do I have to specify the NOLOCK hint on those as well?

For instance; is:

SELECT * FROM table1 a WITH (NOLOCK)
INNER JOIN table2 b WITH (NOLOCK) ON a.ID = b.ID

Equivalent to:

SELECT * FROM table1 a WITH (NOLOCK)
INNER JOIN table2 b ON a.ID = b.ID

Or will I need to specify the (NOLOCK) hint on the join to ensure I'm not locking the joined table?

3 Answers
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