sql statement need help

[ilaboo]

i have a table with fields

date
company
item


what i want to do
in steps
problem is find out the number of times we order from the companies we
order from sorted by least order from to most--i recognize that the
count(item) might not be the actual field returned--i will modify the
select statement once i know what count(item) returns.

count the items and group by company

select * from my_data count(item) group by company:
now i want to inhance this query

i want to sum the count

something like this i think
select * from my_data count( sum (item)) group by company;------is this
right?

then to inhance furter do something that gives me counts by year

select * from my_data count(sum(item)) group by year,company order by
count(sum(item));

or is this right
select * from my_data count(item),sum(count(item) group by year, company;
any help is appreciated

tia
peter