Question

Here’s the declaration I’d like to have.

CREATE PROCEDURE UpdateTimeProc  
(  
    @Hours int,  
    @Minutes int,  
    @Seconds int = 0,  
    @ResetCounter bit  
)

Answer 1

Yes, there is no requirement that parameters with default values must come before or after parameters without. But this means you need to name your parameters if you’re not including all of them. You cannot say…

EXEC dbo.UpdateTimeProc 5, 5, 1;

…and expect 1 to go with @ResetCounter. You’ll need to name the parameters (as Conrad’s answer shows) if you want to leave the optional parameter out.

Let me repeat: the above syntax will NOT work.

You can optionally do it this way (you only have to start naming parameters after you’ve named the first one):

EXEC dbo.UpdateTimeProc 5, 5, @ResetCounter = 1;

But I really don’t recommend it, since people will have to look up what the other parameters are. Generally we should prefer self-documenting code over terse code.