Why does the order of parameters matter for sp_trace_create?

The first batch of the following script calls stored procedure sp_trace_create with parameters in documentation order; the second batch swaps the positions of parameters @tracefile and @options:

DECLARE @new_trace_id INT;

EXECUTE master.dbo.sp_trace_create
  @trace_id = @new_trace_id OUTPUT,
  @options = 0,
  @tracefile = N'C:\temp\TestTrace';

SELECT @new_trace_id AS [@new_trace_id];

EXECUTE master.dbo.sp_trace_setstatus
  @trace_id = @new_trace_id,
  @status = 2;
GO

DECLARE @new_trace_id INT;

EXECUTE master.dbo.sp_trace_create
  @trace_id = @new_trace_id OUTPUT,
  @tracefile = N'C:\temp\TestTrace',
  @options = 0;

EXECUTE master.dbo.sp_trace_setstatus
  @trace_id = @new_trace_id,
  @status = 2;
GO

The first batch creates a new trace, selects its id, and then closes the trace. One result set is returned:

@new_trace_id
2

The second batch fails with an error:


Msg 214, Level 16, State 3, Procedure sp_trace_create, Line 1
Procedure expects parameter '@tracefile' of type 'nvarchar(256)'.

Why does parameter order affect the output of stored procedure sp_trace_create? And why does it fail with such a misleading error message?

I believe this is because it is an extended stored procedure and the parameter names are actually entirely ignored. It just goes off position.

I have renamed them as below (and given them all the same name) and it still works fine.

DECLARE @new_trace_id INT;

EXECUTE master.dbo.sp_trace_create
  @rubbish = @new_trace_id OUTPUT,
  @rubbish = 0,
  @rubbish = N'C:\temp\TestTrace';

SELECT @new_trace_id AS [@new_trace_id];

EXECUTE master.dbo.sp_trace_setstatus
  @trace_id = @new_trace_id,
  @status = 2;

A similar documentation bug was filed by Aaron about sp_executesql.

Another annoying aspect of that stored procedure is that the @maxfilesize must be passed as 'bigint' and it doesn't accept a literal integer. I assume that this is also because it is an extended stored procedure.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#17760, answer score: 6