See ?table for details. > tmp <- ' y x + 1 1 2008 + 2 1 2008 + 3 0 2008 + 4 0 2009 + 5 1 2009' > data <- read.table(textConnection(tmp), header=TRUE) > data y x 1 1 2008 2 1 2008 3 0 2008 4 0 2009 5 1 2009 > table(data$x, data$y) 0 1 2008 1 2 2009 1 1 >