[r] count number of rows in a data frame in R based on group

Using the example data set that Ananda dummied up, here's an example using aggregate(), which is part of core R. aggregate() just needs something to count as function of the different values of MONTH-YEAR. In this case, I used VALUE as the thing to count:

aggregate(cbind(count = VALUE) ~ MONTH.YEAR, 
          data = mydf, 
          FUN = function(x){NROW(x)})

which gives you..

  MONTH.YEAR count
1  FEB. 2012     2
2  JAN. 2012     2
3  MAR. 2012     1