SQL Joining by field that *may* be empty

Question

In my SQL CE database I have three tables: customer, list and customerlist (a junction table between customer and list<

Answer 1

You must use LEFT JOIN syntax.

select list.listid,  case when count(customerlist.customerid) is null then 0 else count(customerlist.customerid) end as numppl, list.ShortDesc
from list left join customerlist on list.listid=customerlist.listid
group by list.ShortDesc, list.listid
order by numppl desc

Or you can use RIGHT JOIN :

select list.listid, case when count(customerlist.customerid) is null then 0 else count(customerlist.customerid) end as numppl, list.ShortDesc
from customerlist right join list on customerlist.listid=list.listid
group by list.ShortDesc, list.listid
order by numppl desc

Use COALESCE :

select list.listid,  coalesce(count(customerlist.customerid),0) as numppl, list.ShortDesc
from list left join customerlist on list.listid=customerlist.listid
group by list.ShortDesc, list.listid
order by numppl desc

Answer 2

Use LEFT JOIN instead with ISNULL to replace NULL with 0:

SELECT 
  list.listid, 
  ISNULL(count(customerlist.customerid), 0) AS numppl, 
  list.ShortDesc
FROM list 
LEFT JOIN customerlist ON list.listid = customerlist.listid
GROUP BY list.ShortDesc, 
         list.listid
ORDER BY numppl DESC;

SQL Fiddle Demo

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Update

For SQL Server CE, try this:

SELECT 
  list.listid, 
  SUM(CASE WHEN customerlist.customerid IS NULL THEN 0 ELSE 1 END) AS numppl, 
  list.ShortDesc
FROM list 
LEFT JOIN customerlist ON list.listid = customerlist.listid
GROUP BY list.ShortDesc, 
         list.listid
ORDER BY numppl DESC;