Difference with (nolock) vs (nolock) as a SQL Table Hint

Difference with (nolock) vs (nolock) as a SQL Table Hint:

select sum(amount) from reward_expired (nolock)

difference was between using the table hint (nolock) and the table hint with (nolock).
Look at MSDN under SQL 2005,

“In SQL Server 2005, with some exceptions, table hints are supported in the FROM clause only when the hints are specified with the WITH keyword. Table hints also must be specified with parentheses.

The following table hints are allowed with and without the WITH keyword: NOLOCK, READUNCOMMITTED, UPDLOCK, REPEATABLEREAD, SERIALIZABLE, READCOMMITTED, FASTFIRSTROW, TABLOCK, TABLOCKX, PAGLOCK, ROWLOCK, NOWAIT, READPAST, XLOCK, and NOEXPAND. When these table hints are specified without the WITH keyword, the hints should be specified alone.”

Micorosft plan to remove the ability to use just (nolock), and to future proof all SQL, users should write all table hints using the with keyword.

Omitting the WITH keyword is a deprecated feature: This feature will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature.

Table Hints (Transact-SQL)

Table Hints (Transact-SQL)

Table hints override the default behavior of the query optimizer for the duration of the data manipulation language (DML) statement by specifying a locking method, one or more indexes, a query processing operation such as a table scan or index seek, or other options.

WITH ( <table_hint> [ [ , ]...n ] )

<table_hint> ::=
[ NOEXPAND ] {
    INDEX ( index_value [ ,...n ] ) | INDEX = ( index_value )
  | FASTFIRSTROW
  | FORCESEEK
  | HOLDLOCK
  | NOLOCK
  | NOWAIT
  | PAGLOCK
  | READCOMMITTED
  | READCOMMITTEDLOCK
  | READPAST
  | READUNCOMMITTED
  | REPEATABLEREAD
  | ROWLOCK
  | SERIALIZABLE
  | TABLOCK
  | TABLOCKX
  | UPDLOCK
  | XLOCK
} 

<table_hint_limited> ::=
{
    KEEPIDENTITY
  | KEEPDEFAULTS
  | FASTFIRSTROW
  | HOLDLOCK
  | IGNORE_CONSTRAINTS
  | IGNORE_TRIGGERS
  | NOWAIT
  | PAGLOCK
  | READCOMMITTED
  | READCOMMITTEDLOCK
  | READPAST
  | REPEATABLEREAD
  | ROWLOCK
  | SERIALIZABLE
  | TABLOCK
  | TABLOCKX
  | UPDLOCK
  | XLOCK
}

The following table hints are allowed with and without the WITH
keyword: NOLOCK, READUNCOMMITTED, UPDLOCK, REPEATABLEREAD,
SERIALIZABLE, READCOMMITTED, FASTFIRSTROW, TABLOCK, TABLOCKX, PAGLOCK,
ROWLOCK, NOWAIT, READPAST, XLOCK, and NOEXPAND. When these table hints
are specified without the WITH keyword, the hints should be specified
alone.

For example:

Select * FROM table1 (TABLOCK)

Select * FROM table1 WITH (TABLOCK, INDEX(myindex))