Text Columns

import textwrap

def text_to_columns(text: str, num_columns: int, col_width: int = 30) -> str:
    """Split text into N columns with specified column width."""
    lines = text.splitlines()
    wrapped = []
    for line in lines:
        if line.strip():
            wrapped.extend(textwrap.wrap(line, col_width) or [""])
        else:
            wrapped.append("")

    # Pad to fill columns evenly
    rows = -(-len(wrapped) // num_columns)  # ceiling division
    wrapped += [""] * (rows * num_columns - len(wrapped))

    result_lines = []
    for r in range(rows):
        row_parts = []
        for c in range(num_columns):
            idx = c * rows + r
            cell = wrapped[idx] if idx < len(wrapped) else ""
            row_parts.append(cell.ljust(col_width))
        result_lines.append("  ".join(row_parts))

    return "\n".join(result_lines)

text = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. " * 3
print(text_to_columns(text, num_columns=2, col_width=40))