Beginner: LEFT JOIN not doing what it should? - sql

Question

I'm having trouble with a really simple left join statement that's driving me nuts
I wanted to count the numbers of orders from each customer, that's fine, but I want to display the name, and I'm joining with the customers table and trying to select the name and it says that CustomerName is not part of an aggregate function, it's really weird.
SELECT Customers.CustomerName as 'Name',
COUNT(*) AS 'Order Count'
FROM Orders
LEFT JOIN Customers
ON Orders.CustomerID = Customers.CustomerID
GROUP BY Customers.CustomerID
Thanks for any tips.

Answer 1

You need to count the rows from the orders table, and the left join should be in the other direction:
SELECT c.customerid,
c.CustomerName as "Name",
COUNT(o.customerid) AS "Order Count"
FROM Customers c
LEFT JOIN Orders o ON o.CustomerID = cs.CustomerID
GROUP BY c.CustomerID, c.customername;
count() will ignore NULL values that come into the result due to the outer join so it will count the number of orders for each customers. Customers without orders will be show with a zero count.

Answer 2

Include CustomerName in Group BY instead of CustomerID
SELECT Customers.CustomerName as 'Name', COUNT(*) AS 'Order Count'
FROM Orders LEFT JOIN Customers ON Orders.CustomerID = Customers.CustomerID
GROUP BY Customers.CustomerName
If you are using SQL Server then try using OVER() without Group BY
SELECT Customers.CustomerName as 'Name', COUNT(*) OVER (PARTITION BY Customers.CustomerName ORDER BY Customers.CustomerName)AS 'Order Count'
FROM Orders LEFT JOIN Customers ON Orders.CustomerID = Customers.CustomerID

Answer 3

Modify as below. column used in group by clause should be in column queried in select clause
SELECT Customers.CustomerName as 'Name',
COUNT(*) AS 'Order Count'
FROM Orders
LEFT JOIN Customers
ON Orders.CustomerID = Customers.CustomerID
GROUP BY Customers.CustomerName

Answer 4

I have just reordered your query,please try this it will definitely work for you.
SELECT Customers.CustomerName as 'Name',
COUNT(*) AS 'Order Count'
FROM Customers
LEFT JOIN Orders
ON Customers.CustomerID=Orders.CustomerID
GROUP BY Customers.CustomerID

Answer 5

A simple approach to get all the columns in the customers table is to use a correlated subquery:
select c.*, -- or whatever columns you want
(select count(*)
from orders o
where o.CustomerID = c.CustomerID
) as order_count
from customers c;
Because this avoids the outer GROUP BY, this also has the advantage of having better performance in most databases, particularly with an index on orders(CustomerId). Plus, it returns 0 if the customer has no orders. And, it allows you to choose any or all of the columns from Customers.
The correct way to get the counts you want is to count a column from Orders:
SELECT c.CustomerName, c.CustomerID,
COUNT(o.CustomerId) AS Order_Count
FROM Customers c LEFT JOIN
Orders o
ON o.CustomerID = c.CustomerID
GROUP BY c.CustomerID, c.CustomerName;
Notes:
The Customers table goes first in the LEFT JOIN because presumably you want all rows in Customers.
Table aliases make the query easier to write and to read.
Do not use single quotes for column aliases, even if your database supports it. The best method is to choose aliases that do not need to be supported.
Include the CustomerId in the logic, just in case two customers have the same name.
Count a column from Orders so you get a count of 0 for customers with no orders.