array_partition

This plugin provides the PHP function c2c_array_partition() to split an array into any number of sub-arrays, suitable for creating evenly distributed, vertically filled “columns”. Also known as “chunking” or “partitioning”.

For example:

$topics = array( "aardvark", "bear", "cat", "dog", "emu", "fox", "gnu", "hippo", "ibis", "jackal" );
print_r( c2c_array_partition( $topics, 4 ) );

Yields:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => ant
            [1] => bear
            [2] => cat
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => dog
            [1] => emu
            [2] => fox
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => gnu
            [1] => hippo
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => ibis
            [1] => jackal
        )
)

Note the array elements are distributed into the requested 4 “columns” as evenly as possible.

The function will fill as many partitions as requested, as long as there are enough elements in the array to do so. Any remaining unfilled partitions will be represented as empty arrays.

In contrast, using PHP’s built-in array_chunk() as such:

print_r( array_chunk( $topics, 4 ) );

Yields:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => aardvark
            [1] => bear
            [2] => cat
            [3] => dog
        )
    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => emu
            [1] => fox
            [2] => gnu
            [3] => hippo
        )
    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => ibis
            [1] => jackal
        )
)

It can be sent an array of any data types or objects.

Links: Plugin Homepage | Plugin Directory Page | GitHub | Author Homepage

Examples

<?php
  $topics = array( "ant", "bear", "cat" );
  print_r( c2c_array_partition( $topics, 5 ) );
?>

=>

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => ant
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => bear
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => cat
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
        )

    [4] => Array
        (
        )
)

Also see Description section for another example. Definitely check out the packaged unit test file as it contains various examples.

1. Install via the built-in WordPress plugin installer. Or download and unzip array-partition.zip inside the plugins directory for your site (typically wp-content/plugins/)
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ admin menu in WordPress
3. Use the c2c_array_partition() function in your template(s) or code as desired.