Question

Like the question says is there a better way to write this:

SELECT clients_lists.*, 
       COUNT(clients_lists_relationships.clientid) 
FROM   clients_lists 
       LEFT JOIN clients_lists_relationships 
         ON clients_lists.listid = clients_lists_relationships.listid 
WHERE  clients_lists.parentid = 1 
GROUP  BY clients_lists.listid; 

Answer 1

Not really. The query looks fine to me. You can try to use aliases for better readability:

SELECT c.*, 
       COUNT(r.clientid) 
FROM   clients_lists c
       LEFT JOIN clients_lists_relationships r
         ON c.listid = r.listid 
WHERE  c.parentid = 1 
GROUP  BY c.listid;

But it won’t really make a technical difference (not that I know).

Also make sure that both clients_lists.listid and clients_lists_relationships.listid are of the same datatype and length and are indexed. This will definitely help your query’s performance.