// I have some array in this property $this->categories and `dis` function is just nice way to print array.
/*
Here are my array examples
*/

$categories = array(
    1 => array(
        'a', 'b', 'c',
    ),
    2 => array(
        'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g',
    ),
    3 => array(
        'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f',
        'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l',
    ),
    4 => array(
        'a', 'b',
    ),
    5 => array(
        'a',
    ),
    6 => array(
        'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e',
    ),
    7 => array(
        'a', 'b', 'd', 'e', 'f',
        'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l',
    ),
    8 => array(
        'a', 'b', 'd', 'e', 'f',
        'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l',
    ),
    9 => array(
        'a', 'b',
        'g', 'h',
    ),
);

function dividingArray( $array, $columnsMax = 3 )
{
    dis( $array );

    $listlen   = count( $array );
    $partlen   = floor( $listlen / $columnsMax );
    $partrem   = $listlen % $columnsMax;
    $partition = array();
    $mark      = 0;

    for ( $px = 0; $px < $columnsMax; $px++ )
    {
        $incr             = ( $px < $partrem ) ? $partlen + 1 : $partlen;
        $partition[ $px ] = array_slice( $array, $mark, $incr );
        $mark             += $incr;
    }

    dis( $partition );

    $result = array();

    for ( $i = 0; $i < count( $partition[0] ); $i++ )
    {
        $tmp = array();

        foreach ( $partition as $column )
        {
            if ( isset( $column[ $i ] ) )
            {
                $tmp[] = $column[ $i ];
            }
            else
            {
                $tmp[] = '';
            }
        }

        $result[] = $tmp;
    }

    dis( $result );
}

function dis( $var )
{
    echo '<pre>';
    print_r( $var );
    echo '</pre>';
}

// Usage for testing
echo '<h1>Test: 1</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[1] );

echo '<h1>Test: 2</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[2] );

echo '<h1>Test: 3</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[3] );

echo '<h1>Test: 4</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[4] );

echo '<h1>Test: 5</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[5] );

echo '<h1>Test: 6</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[6] );

echo '<h1>Test: 7</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[7] );

echo '<h1>Test: 8</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[8] );

echo '<h1>Test: 9</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[9] );

echo '<h1>Test: 10</h1>';
dividingArray( $categories[10] );