WordPress post count per month

I need to run a query in WordPress to get how many posts there are per month including zeros.

My query right now returns the first part of what I am trying to return:

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select
distinct date_format(post_date, '%y') "year",
date_format(post_date, '%b') "month",
from wp_posts
where post_type = 'post'
and post_status = 'publish'
group by date_format(post_date, '%y'), date_format(post_date, '%b')
order by date_format(post_date, '%y') desc, post_date

It returns something like:

|   year   |   month   |   count   |
------------------------------------
|   10     |   Jan     |     4     |
|   10     |   Feb     |     2     |
|   10     |   Mar     |     1     |
|   10     |   Apr     |     6     |
|   09     |   Jan     |     4     |
|   09     |   Feb     |     2     |

I need to return something like:

|   year   |   month   |   count   |
------------------------------------
|   10     |   Jan     |     4     |
|   10     |   Feb     |     2     |
|   10     |   Mar     |     1     |
|   10     |   Apr     |     6     |
|   10     |   May     |     0     |
|   10     |   Jun     |     0     |
|   10     |   Jul     |     0     |
|   10     |   Aug     |     0     |
|   10     |   Sep     |     0     |
|   10     |   Oct     |     0     |
|   10     |   Nov     |     0     |
|   10     |   Dec     |     0     |
|   09     |   Jan     |     4     |
|   09     |   Feb     |     2     |
|   09     |   Mar     |     0     |
|   09     |   Apr     |     0     |
|   09     |   May     |     0     |
|   09     |   Jun     |     0     |
|   09     |   Jul     |     0     |
|   09     |   Aug     |     0     |
|   09     |   Sep     |     0     |
|   09     |   Oct     |     0     |
|   09     |   Nov     |     0     |
|   09     |   Dec     |     0     |

I would use rownum in Oracle, but I can’t figure out the query using MySQL syntax. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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1 comment

  1. This requires the numbers table trick –

    1. Create a table called NUMBERS:

      DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `example`.`numbers`;
      CREATE TABLE  `example`.`numbers` (
        `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
         PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
      ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
      
    2. Populate the table by running the following at least two dozen times:

      INSERT INTO NUMBERS (id) VALUES (NULL)
      

    That will allow you to generate a list of dates using:

    SELECT DATE(DATE_ADD('2009-01-01', INTERVAL n.id MONTH)) AS dt
      FROM NUMBERS n
    

    Now, you can left join your current query to the list of dates:

       SELECT DATE_FORMAT(x.dt, '%y') "year",
              DATE_FORMAT(x.dt, '%b') "month",
              COUNT(*) AS count
         FROM (SELECT DATE_ADD('2009-01-01', INTERVAL n.id MONTH) AS dt
                 FROM NUMBERS n) x
    LEFT JOIN WP_POSTS wp ON MONTH(wp.post_date) = MONTH(x.dt)
                         AND YEAR(wp.post_date) = YEAR(x.dt)
                         AND wp.post_type = 'post'
                         AND wp.post_status = 'publish'
        WHERE YEAR(x.dt) IN (2009, 2010)
     GROUP BY DATE_FORMAT(x.dt, '%y'), DATE_FORMAT(x.dt, '%b')
     ORDER BY DATE_FORMAT(x.dt, '%y') DESC, MONTH(x.dt)