Mysql help please

[mconnors]

I'm so confused so I thought I'd ask for help- how do i write this statment...

Select $f.username AS USER, COUNT(*) AS PHOTOS, SUM($i.views) AS VIEWS, SUM($i.downloads) AS DOWN, MAX(UNIX_TIMESTAMP($i.date_added)) AS UPLOAD, $f.user_regdate AS REG, $f.user_posts AS POST FROM $i,$f WHERE $i.author=$f.username GROUP BY USER

so that it will list all $f.username even if there is no corresponding $i.author=$f.username, I've tried a bunch of different ways including

FROM $f 
LEFT JOIN $i ON $f.username=$i.author
GROUP BY USER

but it keeps generating a million results and keeps crashing the server (ergo I thought I should stop futzin and ask the question)

Any help would be greatly appreciated
admin@morguefile.com

[Xnuiem]

The best way, from a database standpoint is to use reserved ids.

have id 1 be Jane Doe, and make all refs to a user that are 0, actually be on instead. Enforce this with your database and application.

This way, you can use complex queries and then just filter if you need to when the information comes back out of the query.