Select count with 0 count - sql-server

Question

Lets say I have following query:
SELECT top (5) CAST(Created AS DATE) as DateField,
Count(id) as Counted
FROM Table
GROUP BY CAST(Created AS DATE)
order by DateField desc
Lets say it will return following data set
DateField Counted
2016-01-18 34
2016-01-17 99
2016-01-14 1
2015-12-28 1
2015-12-27 6
But when I have Counted = 0 for certain Date I would like to get that in result set. So for example it should look like following
DateField Counted
2016-01-18 34
2016-01-17 99
2016-01-16 0
2016-01-15 0
2016-01-14 1
Thank you!

Answer 1

Expanding upon KM's answer, you need a date table which is like a numbers table.
There are many examples on the web but here's a simple one.
CREATE TABLE DateList (
DateValue DATE,
CONSTRAINT PK_DateList PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (DateValue)
)
GO
-- Insert dates from 01/01/2015 and 12/31/2015
DECLARE #StartDate DATE = '01/01/2015'
DECLARE #EndDatePlus1 DATE = '01/01/2016'
DECLARE #CurrentDate DATE = #StartDate
WHILE #EndDatePlus1 > #CurrentDate
BEGIN
INSERT INTO DateList VALUES (#CurrentDate)
SET #CurrentDate = DATEADD(dd,1,#CurrentDate)
END
Now you have a table
then you can rewrite your query as follows:
SELECT top (5) DateValue, isnull(Count(id),0) as Counted
FROM DateList
LEFT OUTER JOIN Table
on DateValue = CAST(Created AS DATE)
GROUP BY DateValue
order by DateValue desc
Two notes:
You'll need a where clause to specify your range.
A join on a cast isn't ideal. The type in your date table should match the type in your regular table.

Answer 2

One more solution as a single query:
;WITH dates AS
(
SELECT CAST(DATEADD(DAY, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY [object_id]) - 1, '2016-01-14') as date) 'date'
FROM sys.all_objects
)
SELECT TOP 5
[date] AS 'DateField',
SUM(CASE WHEN Created IS NULL THEN 0 ELSE 1 END) AS 'Counted'
FROM dates
LEFT JOIN Table ON [date]=CAST(Created as date)
GROUP BY [date]
ORDER BY [date]

Answer 3

For a more edgy solution, you could use a recursive common table expression to create the date list. PLEASE NOTE: do not use recursive common table expressions in your day job! They are dangerous because it is easy to create one that never terminates.
DECLARE #StartDate date = '1/1/2016';
DECLARE #EndDate date = '1/15/2016';
WITH DateList(DateValue)
AS
(
SELECT DATEADD(DAY, 1, #StartDate)
UNION ALL
SELECT DATEADD(DAY, 1, DateValue)
FROM DateList
WHERE DateList.DateValue < #EndDate
)
SELECT DateValue, isnull(Count(id),0) as Counted
FROM DateList
LEFT OUTER JOIN [Table]
ON DateValue = CAST(Created AS DATE)
GROUP BY DateValue
ORDER BY DateValue DESC