Displaying rows with count 0 with mysql group by

Question

I have two tables in MySql Company : (cname,city) works : (ename,cname,salary)

I want to display number of employees working for every company, even if that number is zero.

for e.g. for

Company : 
Microsoft Bangalore
IBM       NY

works : 
emp1 Microsoft 10000
emp2 Microsoft 90000

output should be :

Microsoft 2
IBM 0

But the following query and other similar queries print only those companies which have at least one employee :

Select count(*) from works natural join company group by company.cname

If I use outer join, then the companies with zero employees will still show up in one row, so that option is out as well.

How to do it?

Answer 1

Classic case for a LEFT JOIN:

SELECT
  c.cname,
  COUNT(w.ename) wcount 
FROM
  company c
  LEFT JOIN works w ON c.cname = w.cname
GROUP BY
  c.cname