Mastering SQL Trace Using Profiler - Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Performance Tuning - page 10

Event category
An event category is a subset of related event classes. Each event class belongs to a
particular event category and each event category includes a subset of specific type of
event classes. Locks, performance, scans, and stored procedures are some examples of
the event categories. To get list of all available event categories,you can query sys.trace_
categories catalog view. You can join sys.trace_events and sys.trace_categories
catalog views on category_id column to make correlation between the two views.
Data column
A data column is an attribute that represents a particular characteristic of an event class.
For example, event class SQL:BatchCompleted can have different characteristics,
such as TextData , LoginName , Duration , StartTime , EndTime , and so on, where
TextData represents T-SQL statement(s) whose execution raises a particular event.
These characteristics of event classes are represented by different data columns.
Trace
A session that performs the activity of capturing database events and collecting events' data
is typically called a trace. Loosely, the term Trace is also used by database professionals to
refer the Trace Data that has been collected previously during a trace session and saved in
a trace file or SQL Server table.
Trace properties and Trace definition
A set of configured settings for a trace that defines how event data should be collected or
saved and which event classes or data columns should be collected as a part of trace data is
called Trace properties or a Trace definition.
Filter
A filter is an optional logical condition that can be applied to a trace to limit the resulting trace
data by capturing only the required trace events for which the filter condition is satisfied. For
example, in a trace definition we can specify a filter condition so that SQL Trace collects event
data only for a specific database by applying a filter on either DatabaseID data column or
DatabaseName data column.
Trace file
This is a file with the extension .trc in which the captured trace data is saved.
Trace table
A table in SQL Server database in which the captured trace data is stored is a trace table.
Trace template
A file which saves the pre-configured trace definitions is called a Trace Template. This can be
reused for creating new traces.