MySQL COUNT problem.

Question

Is there a way I can count how many ungraded essays there are to be displayed? IF so What else do I have to add or take away from my MySQL code?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Here is my MySQL code.

SELECT students.*, students_essays.*  
FROM students  
INNER JOIN students_essays ON students.student_id = students_essays.student_id 
LEFT JOIN essays_grades ON students_essays.id = essays_grades.students_essays_id
WHERE essays_grades.grade_id IS NULL
ORDER BY students_essays.id DESC;

Here is my MySQL tables.

CREATE TABLE students_essays (
id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
student_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
content TEXT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);


CREATE TABLE students (
student_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
student_first_name VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
student_last_name VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
pass CHAR(40) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (student_id)
);


CREATE TABLE essays_grades (
id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
grade_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
students_essays_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
student_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE grades (
id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
letter_grade VARCHAR(2) DEFAULT NULL,
grade_points FLOAT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

Answer 1

SELECT count(*)  
FROM students  
INNER JOIN students_essays ON students.student_id = students_essays.student_id 
LEFT JOIN essays_grades ON students_essays.id = essays_grades.students_essays_id
WHERE essays_grades.grade_id IS NULL
ORDER BY students_essays.id DESC;

Answer 2

As far as I can see you only need to look at 2 tables for this.

SELECT COUNT(*) 
FROM students_essays se
WHERE NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM 
                 essays_grades ge
                 WHERE se.id = eg.students_essays_id)