Question

insert into table b select * from table a (nolock)  

Where do I put the nolock? The above is giving an error as invalid column name ‘nolock’

My requirement is to insert the data from table a to table b but I am getting frequent deadlocks.

Answer 1

Assuming this is for SQL Server…

A more modern way to write it would be

insert into b 
   select * 
   from a with (readuncomitted)

There are many risks and consequences from using this. Worth considering whether table a will always deliver consistent results when using readuncommitted, the more recent version of NOLOCKS.

Even with this you can still see a deadlock, depending on what else is happening to those tables at the time. You eliminate one potential cause of deadlocks by reading uncommitted data and holding no locks on table a as you read.

See this question for some details:

Is nolock (SQL Server) hint bad practice?