Snippet: Split main body into multiple columns, like a newspaper article....

This is a version that I use that uses CSS Div's instead of Tables. Its a little more versitile than the above snippet as well. Improvements are always welcome. It takes into account 2 br combinations as well as deals with p tags

//Released by Ryan Coulombe under the GPL 2.0
//    http://crystaldawn.net

//Usage:
echo newspapercolumns("Your string variable should go here");

function strsplit($str, $l=1) 
{
   //If you run PHP5, you could replace this crap with something simple like str_split($str, 1);  PHP3/4 dont
   //have this type of function, although I wish it did.
   do {
      $ret[]=substr($str,0,$l); 
      $str=substr($str,$l); 
      }
   while($str != "");
   return $ret;
}

function newspapercolumns($str) 
{

//This function *could* take an argument called columns IE newspapercolumns($str, $num_columns)
//but I chose not to do this because my particular setup requires uneven column heights/widths.  I
//can only assume that others would run into the same problem so I've left it the way I use it myself
//so that you can modify each column individually.

//This function also accomodates <br> and <p>.  Since these characters take up more space than a normal
//character (each takes up the width of a column), they need to be accounted for.  I could not find any
//function on the web that does newspaper columns and also accounts for this weirdness so I had to
//whip up my own.  It's not the best code on the planet but it definatly gets the job done.  Its just
//not very human readable code..

//Get the size of our string that came in
$total_size = strlen($str);

//Setup a our columns
//My particular setup requires that the 1st/2nd columns be the same height while the 3rd is much smaller.
//If you want all 3 to be of equal size, simply change total_size * 3/7 to 2/3 and change the 3rd column to 
//be the $col3_max_chars = $col2_max_chars;
$col1_max_chars = ceil($total_size * 3/7);
$col2_max_chars = $col1_max_chars;
$col3_max_chars = $total_size - ($col1_max_chars *2);

 //Split the string into an array thats usable.  There is probably a better way to do this, but I didnt
 //feel like coming up with one myself so I swiped it from someone else
 $str = strsplit($str);
 
 //Initialize the position variable
 $position = 0;
 
 //The br/p weight should be equal to the total width of a column (which is 47 chars for me)
 //This will vary for you depending on the width you set for each column as well as the font size you are using.
 //To find out how many chars this is, simply copy/paste a complete lorum impsum row from your text and paste it into an
 //editor that can tell you how many chars are in that line (IE: OpenOffice Writer or MS Word).  It should count spaces
 //as well.
 
 $br_weight = 47;
 
 //Initialize the column variable with 1 not 0
 $current_column = 1;
 
 //Loop through each character in our string array and assign it to a column.
 foreach ($str AS $character)
 {
   //Increment the position variable
    $position++;
    
    /*********************  Column 1  *********************/
   if ($current_column == 1)
   {
      //Ignore \n characters since they are not displayed in browser space anyways.
      if ($character == "\n") { continue; }
   
      //If this is the first trip through for column 1, we setup the DIV
      if ($counter == 0)
      {
      $col1 = "<div style='float:left; width:230px;  text-align:justify; margin-left:10px;'>\n";
      $counter++;
      }
      
      //Add <br> and <p> allowances since they take up more space than a single char
      if 
      (
         ($character == '<') && (stristr($str[$position], 'p')) && ($str[$position+1] == '>')
      )
      {
       //if we've found a <p> reduce the column max by.the weight we gave <br>/<p>  This helps keep our text in the div on our page
       $col1_max_chars -= $br_weight;
      }
      if 
      (
         (($character == '<') && ($str[$position] == 'b') && ($str[$position+1] == 'r') && ($str[$position+2] == '>')) &&
         ( 
            (($str[$position+3] == '<') && (stristr($str[$position], 'b')) && ($str[$position+5] == 'r') && ($str[$position+6] == '>')) ||
            (($str[$position+3] == "\n") && ($str[$position+4] == '<') && (stristr($str[$position+5], 'b')) && (stristr($str[$position+6], 'r')) && ($str[$position+7] == '>'))
         )
      )
      {
      //if we've found TWO <br>'s reduce the column max by.the weight we gave <br>/<p>  This helps keep our text in the div on our page
       $col1_max_chars -= $br_weight;
      }
      //END <br><p> allowance code
      
   //Fill the first column with our character
   $col1 .= $character;
   
   //Increment the $char_counter variable so we can move to the next character in our string array on the next loop.
   $char_counter++;
   
      //If we are at the maximium height for the first column, we end it here and increment the $current_column variable to start
      //the loop working on the 2nd column. 
      if ((strlen($col1) >= $col1_max_chars) && ($col1[strlen($col1)-1] == ' '))
      {
      $current_column++;
      $col1 .= '</div>';
      }
      
      //Sanitize the variables so they can be re-used in the other columns
      $num_brs = 0;
      $num_ps = 0;
      $num_crs = 0;
      $add_extra_space_for_br = 0;
      
      //Stop the code here and start the loop again.  This prevents the code from trying to build the other columns before it's time.
      continue;
   }
   
    /*********************  Column 2  *********************/
   if ($current_column == 2)
   {
   if ($character == "\n") { continue; }
      if ($counter == 1)
      {
      $col2 = "<div style='float:left; width:230px;  text-align:justify; margin-left:10px;'>\n";
      $counter++;
      }
      
      //Add <br> and <p> allowances since they take up more space than a single char
      if 
      (
         ($character == '<') && (stristr($str[$position], 'p')) && ($str[$position+1] == '>')
      )
      {
       $col2_max_chars -= $br_weight;
      }
      if 
      (
         (($character == '<') && ($str[$position] == 'b') && ($str[$position+1] == 'r') && ($str[$position+2] == '>')) &&
         ( 
            (($str[$position+3] == '<') && (stristr($str[$position], 'b')) && ($str[$position+5] == 'r') && ($str[$position+6] == '>')) ||
            (($str[$position+3] == "\n") && ($str[$position+4] == '<') && (stristr($str[$position+5], 'b')) && (stristr($str[$position+6], 'r')) && ($str[$position+7] == '>'))
         )
      )
      {
       $col2_max_chars -= $br_weight;
      }
      
   $col2 .= $character;
   $char_counter++;
      if ((strlen($col2) >= $col2_max_chars) && ($col2[strlen($col2)-1] == ' '))
      {
      $current_column++;
      $col2 .= '</div>';
      }
   $num_brs = 0;
   $num_ps = 0;
   $num_crs = 0;
   $add_extra_space_for_br = 0;
   continue;
   }
 
     /*********************  Column 3  *********************/
   if ($current_column == 3)
   {
   if ($character == "\n") { continue; }
      if ($counter == 2)
      {
      $col3 = "<div style='float:left; width:230px;  text-align:justify; margin-left:10px;'>\n";
      $counter++;
      }
      
      //Add <br> and <p> allowances since they take up more space than a single char
      if 
      (
         ($character == '<') && (stristr($str[$position], 'p')) && ($str[$position+1] == '>')
      )
      {
       $col3_max_chars -= $br_weight;
      }
      if 
      (
         (($character == '<') && ($str[$position] == 'b') && ($str[$position+1] == 'r') && ($str[$position+2] == '>')) &&
         ( 
            (($str[$position+3] == '<') && (stristr($str[$position], 'b')) && ($str[$position+5] == 'r') && ($str[$position+6] == '>')) ||
            (($str[$position+3] == "\n") && ($str[$position+4] == '<') && (stristr($str[$position+5], 'b')) && (stristr($str[$position+6], 'r')) && ($str[$position+7] == '>'))
         )
      )
      {
       $col3_max_chars -= $br_weight;
      }
   $col3 .= $character;
   $char_counter++;
      if ((strlen($col3) >= $col3_max_chars) && ($col3[strlen($col3)-1] == '.'))
      {
      $current_column++;
      $col3 .= '</div>';
      }
   $num_brs = 0;
   $num_ps = 0;
   $num_crs = 0;
   $add_extra_space_for_br = 0;
      continue;
   }
 }

   //Fill up the $text variable, clean it up, and return it.
 $text = $col1;
 $text .= $col2;
 
 //In some cases the 3rd column will come back without the div attached to it.  We check for this sillyness and fix it.
 if (!strstr($col3, '</div>')) { $col3 .= '</div>'; }
 $text .= $col3;
 
 //Send off our nice shiny new newspaper lookin text block
 return $text;
}

Drupal 5 compat?

Hello Janwari,
can you confirm this will only work if you have a body consisting of more paragraphs?
If there is one large text in only one paragraph the text will not be split (within the paragraphs). Is this correct?
Regards