Problem in Building my own Forum

[johny]

I'm trying to build my own forum and I've got a problem with a query. I've got two tables and i need information out of both of them.

forum_table
1 forum_id (key)
2 forum_name
3 forum_created_by....

topic_table
1 topic_id (key)
2 topic_forum_id
3 topic_name
4 topic_created_by.....

When I want to list all the forums I also want to tell how many topics the forum has. Therefor I use the following query:


PHP Code:
$sql = "SELECT forum_table.*, COUNT(topic_table.topic_id) AS 'forum_topics' FROM forum_table, topic_table WHERE topic_table.topic_forum_id = forum_table.forum_id GROUP BY forum_table.forum_id ASC";

It works perfect.... though, there's one problem. If a forum has no topics, the query can't count the number of topics and so doesn't list the forum at all..

Please help me out? -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[jami]

Use variables or definitions in database queries instead of hard-coding table names.
PHP Code:
define('TBL_SESSIONS', 'tbl_sessions');
$result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM ' . TBL_SESSIONS)


Use Prefixes
Prefix table and field names with short, meaningful identifiers. For example:

tbl_config
configId
cfgProfileId
cfgName
cfgValue

Use a consistent naming scheme
Whether your fields are called cfgProfileId or cfg_profile_id, stick to that convention with the rest of your fields. (Same for table names) -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --