mysql Get missing values - mysql

Question

I know this is ordinary question but I need something more. I have an issue about getting values that are not inserted in one table.
Ok here are my tables:
name: importantDates; cols: id, date
name: inserts; cols: id, date, employe_id
My question: how to get missing values for each employe? Let's say I need missing inserts from employe with id=213?
So far, I wrote this, but it doesn't work yet as if there is insert for one worker in one day, it eliminates one day for all workers.
code:
SELECT i.date
FROM importantDates i
LEFT OUTER JOIN inserts s
ON i.date = DATE(s.date)
WHERE i.date BETWEEN '2013-1-1'
AND '2013-2-23'
AND s.date IS NULL;
Now how can I add checking for employe_id?
Thanks guys, if you need anything more I'm always available.
EDIT:
Here is sample:
Employe:
1. sam
2. mike
3. joe
importantDate:
1. 2013-01-01
2. 2013-01-02
3. ...
40. 2013-02-23
inserts:
1. 2013-02-01, 1
2. 2013-02-01, 2
3. 2013-02-01, 3
4. 2013-02-02, 3
5. 2013-02-03, 1
6. 2013-02-03, 2
7. 2013-01-12, 1
So, when I run query, I should get all "missing" inserts. For each employe I should get date and ID of employee when insert is missing. A lot of data but it is important to know which are not inserted and which are.

Answer 1

Assuming you have an employee table, try:
select sq.* from
(select e.employe_id, i.date
FROM importantDates i
CROSS JOIN employee e
WHERE i.date BETWEEN '2013-1-1' AND '2013-2-23') sq
LEFT OUTER JOIN inserts s
ON sq.date = DATE(s.date) and sq.employe_id = s.employe_id
WHERE s.date IS NULL;
If you don't have a separate employee table, you can simulate one by changing employee in the above query to be:
(select distinct employe_id from inserts) as e

Answer 2

Instead of LEFT OUTER JOIN use a simple LEFT JOIN and provide the dates correctly
SELECT
i.date
FROM importantDates i
LEFT JOIN inserts s
ON i.date = DATE(s.date)
WHERE i.date BETWEEN '2013-01-01'
AND '2013-02-23'
AND s.date IS NULL;

Answer 3

I'm not quite sure if I understand, what you're trying to achieve, but if you want to get every row from table_a which is not in table_b you can do this:
SELECT * FROM table_a
WHERE table_a.col NOT IN
(
SELECT col FROM table_b
)
So (if I understand you correctly) in your case:
SELECT i.date FROM importantDates i
WHERE i.date NOT IN
(
SELECT date FROM inserts WHERE employe_id = 213
)
AND i.date BETWEEN '2013-01-01' AND '2013-02-23';
For more documentation to the IN-clause see mysql documentation
UPDATE:
To get the corresponding employee you can alter the statement to this:
SELECT i.date, e.* FROM importantDates i
JOIN employees e
WHERE i.date NOT IN
(
SELECT s.date FROM inserts s WHERE s.employe_id = e.employe_id
)
AND i.date BETWEEN '2013-01-01' AND '2013-02-23';
However, this is not recommendable because the subquery is correlated to the mainquery.