MYSQL count related records one query

Question

So i have a mysql query that queries a table "contacts" each contact then has purchases. Purchases are in a related table. I want to display each contacts name with the number of purchases they have made to the right like this:

Adam(1)
Mike(8)
Steve(3) 

My current sql looks like this:

SELECT * FROM contacts ORDER BY contacts.name ASC"

and my current table looks like this:

Adam
Mike
Steve

In order to pull the count of the related (purchases) table into the current table i know i have to join the "purchases" table some how and then use the GROUP BY and count() function but i am not sure how to construct this sql statement. Can someone help me.

Again all i am trying to do is list a table (contacts) and count it's related records (purchases) and have it look like this:

Adam(1)
Mike(8)
Steve(3)

Thank you so much for any help.

Answer 1

Assuming the purchases table has a foreign key to the contacts table called contact_id, a query something like this should work:

SELECT c.name, count(p.contact_id)
FROM contacts AS c
LEFT OUTER JOIN purchases AS p
ON p.contact_id = c.contact_id
GROUP BY c.contact_id
ORDER BY c.name ASC

This query will put the count in a separate column, which I recommend. If you must format it the way you indicated with the parentheses after the name, you can use MySQL's concat() function. Something like this:

SELECT concat(c.name, '(', count(p.contact_id), ')') AS Name_And_Count_Together
FROM contacts AS c
LEFT OUTER JOIN purchases AS p
ON p.contact_id = c.contact_id
GROUP BY c.contact_id
ORDER BY c.name ASC

Answer 2

  SELECT contacts.name, COUNT(*) 
    FROM contacts, purchases 
   WHERE contacts.name = purchases.name
GROUP BY purchases.key
ORDER BY contacts.name

Replace .name in the WHERE clause with the key you are using to identify records.