SQL query that returns all dates not used in a table

Question

So lets say I have some records that look like:

2011-01-01 Cat
2011-01-02 Dog
2011-01-04 Horse
2011-01-06 Lion

How can I construct a query

Answer 1

You probably not going to like this:

select '2011-01-03', count(*) from TABLE where postdate='2011-01-03' 
  having count(*)=0 union
select '2011-01-04', count(*) from TABLE where postdate='2011-01-04' 
  having count(*)=0 union
select '2011-01-05', count(*) from TABLE where postdate='2011-01-05' 
  having count(*)=0 union
... repeat for 2 weeks

OR

create a table with all days in 2011, then do a left join, like

select a.days_2011
from all_days_2011
left join TABLE on a.days_2011=TABLE.postdate
where a.days_2011 between date(now()) and date(date_add(now(), interval 2 week))
and TABLE.postdate is null;