How can I count the number of times each of numerous
items appears in a column? That is, I have a column

a
a
b
b
b
c
c
c
c
d
d
etc.

Each entry represented by a letter above is in fact
several words. There are about 10,000 rows in the
table. I would like result like

a 2
b 3
c 4
d 2
etc.

Thanks in advance.

Ken