Creating a function that can assess a column and give an output in a new column

This is my first question, so I will attempt to give as much detail as possible.

I am attempting to create a function in which I can produce a new column containing "1" or "0" as my output based on whether or not the original column had a date listed or it had no value. Below is a small example of what I am trying to achieve:

            Column 1      New Column
    Obs.1   4/23/2012          1
    Obs.2                      0
    Obs.3   1/23/2016          1

I am not sure on how to go about doing this. I have attempted to use tapply() and ifelse() in conjunction, but have not had any workable code. This is sort of what I am going for:

    TextToNumb <- function(df$column){
    Ifelse(df$column > 0, 1, 0)
    return(df$newcolumn
    }

I would appreciate any help, thanks!