Hello,

I suggest to take my UDF:

Function CountStrings(r As Range) As Variant
'Returns variant with info about strings in range r:
'First row contains count of different strings and count of empty cells

'Subsequent rows show all occurring strings (sorted) and their
frequency.
'PB V0.90
Dim k As Long
Dim lidx As Long 'index of next empty field in string table
Dim l As Long
Dim rc As Range
ReDim v(0 To r.Rows.Count * r.Columns.Count, 0 To 1) As Variant '0:
string; 1: frequency


lidx = 1
For Each rc In r
If IsEmpty(rc) Then
v(0, 1) = v(0, 1) + 1
Else
'Search for current cell value in string table
v(lidx, 0) = rc 'initialize search so that value
'will be found
l = 1
Do While v(l, 0) < v(lidx, 0)
l = l + 1
Loop
If l = lidx Then
lidx = lidx + 1 'Wasn't in. Added.
Else
If v(l, 0) < rc Then
For k = lidx - 1 To l Step -1
v(k + 1, 0) = v(k, 0)
v(k + 1, 1) = v(k, 1)
Next k
v(l, 0) = rc
v(l, 1) = 0
lidx = lidx + 1
End If
End If
v(l, 1) = v(l, 1) + 1 'increase frequency
End If
Next rc
v(lidx, 0) = ""
v(0, 0) = lidx - 1
CountStrings = v
End Function

It has been designed to count strings but it will do dates, too.

Just select a two-column range in your spreadsheet and array-enter
=CountStrings(A1:A999)
(terminate with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER)
Change A1:A999 to your desired input area.

HTH,
Bernd