Count from each distinct date, fill in missing dates with zero - laravel

Question

I'm trying to create an Eloquent query that gets the total number of posts made each distinct day, and if the date is missing, fill it in with a value of zero.
For example, if my table looks like this:
+----+---------------------+
| id | date |
+----+---------------------+
| 1 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 |
| 2 | 2015-01-01 01:53:18 |
| 3 | 2015-01-01 02:41:26 |
| 4 | 2015-01-02 12:51:01 |
| 5 | 2015-01-05 08:24:12 |
+----+---------------------+
This would output:
2015-01-01 : 3
2015-01-02 : 1
2015-01-05 : 1
Notice, however, that the days 03-04 are missing. How can I include these dates, but give them the value 0 such that I end up with an output like:
2015-01-01 : 3
2015-01-02 : 1
2015-01-03 : 0
2015-01-04 : 0
2015-01-05 : 1
Here is my current query:
$posts = Post::select(array(
DB::raw('DATE(`created_at`) as `date`'),
DB::raw('COUNT(*)as `count`')
))
->where('created_at', '>', Carbon::today()->subWeek())
->groupBy('date')
->orderBy('date', 'DESC')
->lists('count', 'date');
Thanks!

Answer 1

In your SQL results you can generate some "fake-data" in your rows, but u can not generate "fake-rows", exept joining to some "fake(temporary)-table".
In your case ll be much easier to apply some logic around sql-result.
Replace your code with this:
$order = 'DESC';
$endDate = Carbon::today();
$startDate = Carbon::today()->subWeek();
$dateInc = ($order == 'DESC') ? -1 : 1;
$dateCycleHolder = clone ($dateInc > 0 ? $startDate : $endDate);
$dateCycleEnd = clone ($dateInc > 0 ? $endDate : $startDate);
$posts = Post::select(array(
DB::raw('DATE(`created_at`) as `date`'),
DB::raw('COUNT(*)as `count`')
))
->where('created_at', '>', $startDate)
->groupBy('date')
->orderBy('date', $order)
->lists('count', 'date');
$postsFinal = new \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection();
while ($dateCycleHolder->ne($dateCycleEnd)) {
$dateCurr = $dateCycleHolder->format('Y-m-d');
$postsFinal->put($dateCurr, $posts->get($dateCurr, 0));
$dateCycleHolder->addDay($dateInc);
}
$dateCurr = $dateCycleHolder->format('Y-m-d');
$postsFinal->put($dateCurr, $posts->get($dateCurr, 0));
$posts = $postsFinal;
its alittle bit flexible, you can change values of this things:
$order = 'DESC';
$endDate = Carbon::today();
$startDate = Carbon::today()->subWeek();