Find out what columns are in a trace file

while tackling and unexpected CPU spike that was happening every 10 min one of my colleagues prepared a server side trace as follows:

```
-- Create a Queue
declare @rc int
declare @TraceID int
declare @maxfilesize bigint
declare @DateTime datetime

set @DateTime = '2015-09-03 10:50:00.000'
set @maxfilesize = 10240 --10GB

-- Please replace the text InsertFileNameHere, with an appropriate
-- filename prefixed by a path, e.g., c:\MyFolder\MyTrace. The .trc extension
-- will be appended to the filename automatically. If you are writing from
-- remote server to local drive, please use UNC path and make sure server has
-- write access to your network share

exec @rc = sp_trace_create @TraceID output, 2, N'H:\profiler\BocssTrace_20150903.trc', @maxfilesize, @Datetime
if (@rc != 0) goto error

-- Client side File and Table cannot be scripted

-- Set the events
declare @on bit
set @on = 1
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 8, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 1, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 9, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 6, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 10, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 14, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 11, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 35, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 14, 12, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 15, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 8, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 16, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 9, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 13, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 17, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 6, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 10, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 14, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 18, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 11, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 35, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 15, 12, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 17, 8, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 17, 12, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID,

You can utilize the trace catalog views in SQL Server to get information about a given trace. Just pass in the ID of the trace you are interested in, code below pulls trace ID of 1, which is the default trace.

--  Gets all Events for a given trace id
SELECT a.[EventID], b.[name] AS [Even Name], a.[ColumnID], c.[name] AS [Column Name], d.[name] AS [Category]
FROM fn_trace_geteventinfo() AS a --<<Put the trace ID you are interested in
    INNER JOIN sys.trace_events AS b ON a.EventID = b.Trace_Event_ID
    INNER JOIN sys.trace_columns AS c ON a.ColumnID = c.Trace_Column_ID
    INNER JOIN sys.trace_categories AS d ON b.Category_ID = d.Category_ID
ORDER BY a.[EventID], a.[ColumnID]

This will give you the Event Name and Column Name being used by the trace.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#114446, answer score: 8