When we encountered excessive blocking issues with reports, one tempting solution was to use the WITH NOLOCK table hint to get the report running smoothly and avoid blocking behavior completely.

Let's break down when it's ideal to use the NOLOCK hint and when you should never use it. As a consultant, I work on wide swaths of database systems, which means I get to see many, many SQL statements ...

Standard SQL defines four isolation levels that can be set using the SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL statement: Serializable, Repeatable Read, Read Committed, and Read Uncommitted. Although all of the ...