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
>