I wrote a query to get month-wise record in user table as follows
SELECT COUNT( `userID` ) AS total, DATE_FORMAT( `userRegistredDate` , \'%b\' ) AS
MONTH , Y
You may need a table to hold every "month" record. A temp table can do the trick:
drop table if extists temp_months;
create temporary table temp_months
month date,
index idx_date(month);
insert into temp_months
values ('2013-01-31'), ('2013-02-28'), ...
And now, you can left join your data with this newly created temp table:
SELECT
COUNT( `userID` ) AS total,
DATE_FORMAT( m.month , '%b' ) AS
MONTH ,
YEAR( m.month ) AS year
FROM
months as m
left join `users` as u on m.month = last_day(FROM_UNIXTIME(`userRegistredDate`, '%b' )
GROUP BY
last_day(m.month);
Notice that you can put the temp table creation (and fill) in a stored procedure.
I use last_day
for simplicity, but you are free to use any date in the month that you like, if you join it correctly.
Hope this helps
I won't say much about efficiency as I have not tested it against other methods but without having a temp table this seem a fair way to go.
SELECT COUNT(u.userID) AS total, m.month
FROM (
SELECT 'Jan' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Feb' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Mar' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Apr' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'May' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Jun' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Jul' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Aug' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Sep' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Oct' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Nov' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Dec' AS MONTH
) AS m
LEFT JOIN users u
ON MONTH(STR_TO_DATE(CONCAT(m.month, ' 2013'),'%M %Y')) = MONTH(u.userRegistredDate)
AND YEAR(u.userRegistredDate) = '2013'
GROUP BY m.month
ORDER BY 1+1;
If you make the union based on a date format you can even reduce the work and load on the query.
SELECT COUNT(u.userID) AS total, DATE_FORMAT(merge_date,'%b') AS month, YEAR(m.merge_date) AS year
FROM (
SELECT '2013-01-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-02-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-03-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-04-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-05-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-06-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-07-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-08-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-09-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-10-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-11-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-12-01' AS merge_date
) AS m
LEFT JOIN users u
ON MONTH(m.merge_date) = MONTH(u.userRegistredDate)
AND YEAR(m.merge_date) = YEAR(u.userRegistredDate)
GROUP BY m.merge_date
ORDER BY 1+1;
Live DEMO of both queries.