If you have a table or query called tblThingies
fldThingies fldDate
12341201 12/20/1995
12341201 1/13/1997
12341201 6/8/2000
12341201 9/2/2005
12341202 12/20/1995
12341203
12341204 6/8/2000
12341204 9/2/2005
Then Sql
SELECT tblThingies.fldThingies , Sum(IIf(Not IsNull([fldDate]),1,0)) AS FldCount
FROM tblThingies
GROUP BY tblThingies.fldThingies;
you will get
12341201 4
12341202 1
12341203 0
12341204 2
But I am confused by what you are now saying so unless you can post your db I feel that I can no longer help.
Brian