MySQL summing value across date range

Question

I have a table with each row containing a date and some arbitrary, numeric value. I need to sum this value for a specific but dynamic date interval.

SELECT VERSION();
5.0.51a-24+lenny5

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `work_entries` (
  `entry_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `employee_id` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `work_date` date NOT NULL,
  `hour_count` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`entry_id`)
);

INSERT INTO `work_entries` (`entry_id`, `employee_id`, `work_date`, `hour_count`) VALUES
(1, 1, '2011-04-25', 2),
(2, 1, '2011-04-26', 3),
(3, 1, '2011-04-27', 1),
(4, 2, '2011-04-25', 2),
(5, 2, '2011-04-27', 4),
(6, 1, '2011-05-08', 2),
(7, 2, '2011-05-06', 8),
(8, 2, '2011-05-08', 9),
(9, 2, '2011-05-09', 1),
(10, 1, '2011-05-29', 3),
(11, 1, '2011-05-30', 1),
(12, 2, '2011-05-30', 2),
(13, 1, '2011-06-02', 2),
(14, 1, '2011-06-04', 3),
(15, 1, '2011-06-14', 1),
(16, 2, '2011-06-14', 2),
(17, 2, '2011-06-17', 4),
(18, 1, '2011-06-18', 2),
(19, 2, '2011-06-19', 8),
(20, 2, '2011-06-26', 9),
(21, 2, '2011-07-01', 1),
(22, 1, '2011-07-03', 3),
(23, 1, '2011-07-03', 1),
(24, 2, '2011-07-16', 2);

The following query returns the correct output for the above data set and should illustrate what I'm trying to do, however, I need to generate the year and month values based on work_date. The days (16, 15) never change. Specifically, this query will produce two rows, one for the specified interval and one for the rest, where I need one row for each period (16th of month N to 15th of month N+1 for all months with values).

SELECT
 SUM(hour_count) AS res
 FROM `work_entries`
 GROUP BY work_date
 BETWEEN '2011-04-16' AND '2011-05-15';

-- Outputs
res
----
44
32

-- Should give
res
----
32
14
28
 2

An alternative example that works correctly but on the wrong interval (days 01-31):

SELECT
 SUM(hour_count) AS res
 FROM `work_entries`
 GROUP BY MONTH(work_date);

-- Outputs
res
---
12
26
31
 7

Additionally, if there is a way to output the from- and to- dates at the same time I'd like that as well, but that's not very important.

Answer 1

lovely:

SELECT
 SUM(hour_count)
 FROM `work_entries`
 GROUP BY
   YEAR(work_date - INTERVAL 15 DAY),
   MONTH(work_date - INTERVAL 15 DAY);

Answer 2

SELECT
  YEAR(grouping_date) AS year,
  MONTH(grouping_date) AS month,
  SUM(hour_count) AS hour_count_total
FROM (
  SELECT
    work_date,
    hour_count,
    work_date - INTERVAL 15 DAY AS grouping_date
  FROM work_entries
) x
GROUP BY
  YEAR(grouping_date),
  MONTH(grouping_date)