Mysql – Should I use select count(*) for counting records or having a field like comments_no for tables like post, comments

Okay, well, since nobody else chimed in and I needed to get it done, I took one last shot at it. Not quite sure on the why of it all, but I used basically the entire query as a subquery in the FROM clause, and then ran the report against that, and that seemed to do it...

SELECT
  [VendorCusts].[VendorPaid],
  [VendorCusts].[DE?],
  [VendorCusts].[IC?],
  [VendorCusts].[AG?],
  [VendorCusts].[GB?],
  COUNT(VendorCustID) AS [CustCount]
FROM
  (
    SELECT DISTINCT
      [Plan Revenue Expense].[Check To] AS [VendorPaid],
      [Support Provider].[DE?],
      [Support Provider].[IC?],
      [Support Provider].[Agency?] AS [AG?],
      [Support Provider].[GeneralBus?] AS [GB?],
      Customer.CustID AS [VendorCustID],
      Customer.LName AS [VendorCustLName],
      Customer.FName AS [VendorCustFName]
    FROM
      (((Customer
      INNER JOIN Plan ON Customer.CustID=Plan.CustID)
      INNER JOIN [Plan Revenue] ON [Plan].[Plan ID]=[Plan Revenue].[PlanID])
      INNER JOIN [Plan Revenue Expense] ON [Plan Revenue].[Rev ID]=[Plan Revenue Expense].[RevID])
      LEFT JOIN [Support Provider] ON [Plan Revenue Expense].[SP]=[Support Provider].[ID]
    WHERE
      (
        (
          ([Plan Revenue Expense].[First Day]>=[Expense Start "MM/DD/YYYY"])
          AND
          ([Plan Revenue Expense].[First Day]<=[Expense End "MM/DD/YYYY"])
        )
        OR
        (
          ([Plan Revenue Expense].[Last Day]>=[Expense Start "MM/DD/YYYY"])
          AND
          ([Plan Revenue Expense].[Last Day]<=[Expense End "MM/DD/YYYY"])
        )
      )
      AND NOT
      (
        [Plan Revenue].[Service]='111' OR
        [Plan Revenue].[Service]='222' OR
        [Plan Revenue].[Service] LIKE '333*'
      )
      AND NOT Customer.[Inactive?]=TRUE
    ORDER BY
      [Plan Revenue Expense].[Check To],
      Customer.LName,
      Customer.FName
  ) AS [VendorCusts]
GROUP BY
  [VendorCusts].[VendorPaid],
  [VendorCusts].[DE?],
  [VendorCusts].[IC?],
  [VendorCusts].[AG?],
  [VendorCusts].[GB?]
HAVING
  NOT ([VendorCusts].[DE?]=TRUE OR [VendorCusts].[IC?]=TRUE)
ORDER BY
  [VendorCusts].[DE?] ASC,
  [VendorCusts].[IC?] ASC,
  [VendorCusts].[AG?] ASC,
  [VendorCusts].[GB?] ASC,
  [VendorCusts].[VendorPaid] ASC;

This is more or less what I finally came up with and it appears to get the job done. Checked a few data points and they seemed to agree with the slightly more verbose version w/o a Count() function. So, I think the results are good.

Then I abstracted out the start and end of the date range so I could run a few different versions. And added a few other parameters I needed...

Seems like it's working as intended, if a bit kludge-y. Sometimes it's better to be 'right' than 'pretty.' ;)

If I have well understood your question, you should use the DECODE function in your query in the SELECT and GROUP BY sections.

NB: for performance purpose, you might create an index using that function.