MySQL: Add Default Value to Joined Table when Row not Found - mysql

Question

System info:
$ uname -srvm
Linux 5.15.0-56-generic #62-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 22 19:54:14 UTC 2022 x86_64
$ mysql --version
mysql Ver 8.0.31-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 for Linux on x86_64 ((Ubuntu))
I am very inexperienced with MySQL & have been looking for an answer to this for about half a week. I am working with two tables named character_stats & halloffame that I want to join in a query. They look like this:
mysql> SELECT name, level FROM character_stats;
+-----------+-------+
| name | level |
+-----------+-------+
| foo | 0 |
| bar | 0 |
| baz | 3 |
| tester | 4 |
| testertoo | 2 |
+-----------+-------+
mysql> SELECT * from halloffame;
+----+-----------+----------+--------+
| id | charname | fametype | points |
+----+-----------+----------+--------+
| 1 | bar | T | 0 |
| 2 | foo | T | 0 |
| 3 | baz | T | 0 |
| 4 | tester | T | 0 |
| 5 | testertoo | T | 0 |
| 6 | tester | D | 40 |
| 7 | tester | M | 92 |
| 8 | bar | M | 63 |
+----+-----------+----------+--------+
In my query, I want to display all the rows from character_stats & I want to join the points column from halloffame for fametype='M'. If there is no row for fametype='M', I want to set points to 0 for that character name, instead of omitting the entire row as is done in the following:
mysql> SELECT name, level, points FROM character_stats JOIN
-> (SELECT charname, points FROM halloffame WHERE fametype='M')
-> AS hof ON (hof.charname=name);
+--------+-------+--------+
| name | level | points |
+--------+-------+--------+
| tester | 4 | 92 |
| bar | 0 | 63 |
+--------+-------+--------+
So I want it to output this:
+-----------+-------+--------+
| name | level | points |
+-----------+-------+--------+
| foo | 0 | 0 |
| bar | 0 | 63 |
| baz | 3 | 0 |
| tester | 4 | 92 |
| testertoo | 2 | 0 |
+-----------+-------+--------+
I have tried to learn how to use IFNULL, IF-THEN-ELSE, CASE, COALESCE, & COUNT statements from what I have found in documentation & answers on stackoverflow.com. But as I said, I am very inexperienced & don't know how to implement them.
The following works on its own:
SELECT IFNULL((SELECT points FROM halloffame WHERE fametype='M'
AND charname='foo' LIMIT 1), 0) as points;
But I don't know how to join it to the character_stats table. The following would work if I knew how to get the value of character_stats.name before COALESCE is called:
SELECT name, level, 'M' AS fametype, points FROM character_stats
JOIN (SELECT COALESCE((SELECT points FROM halloffame WHERE
fametype='M' AND charname=name LIMIT 1), 0) AS points) AS hof;
According to Adding Default Values on Joining Tables I should be able to use CROSS JOIN, but I am doing something wrong as it still results in Unknown column 'cc.name' in 'where clause':
SELECT name, level, points FROM character_stats
CROSS JOIN (SELECT DISTINCT name FROM character_stats) AS cc
JOIN (SELECT COALESCE((SELECT points FROM halloffame WHERE
fametype='M' AND charname=cc.name LIMIT 1), 0) AS points) AS hof;
Some references I have looked at:
Returning a value even if no result
Usage of MySQL's "IF EXISTS"
Return Default value if no row found
MySQL.. Return '1' if a COUNT returns anything greater than 0
How do write IF ELSE statement in a MySQL query
Simple check for SELECT query empty result
Is there a function equivalent to the Oracle's NVL in MySQL?
MySQL: COALESCE within JOIN
Unknown Column In Where Clause With Join
Adding Default Values on Joining Tables
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/returning-a-value-even-if-there-is-no-result-in-a-mysql-query

Answer 1

I found that I can do the following:
SELECT name, level, COALESCE((SELECT points FROM
halloffame WHERE fametype='M' AND charname=name
LIMIT 1), 0) AS points FROM character_stats;
Though I would still like to know how to do it within a JOIN statement.