Split custom post list into two columns

Question

can anyone help me split this custom post type into two lists? i'm a novice PHPr but have been left with this code by someone who said it was too complicated...

function listforcontinent($name, $top = false){
    // top=true - show name, no columns
    // top=false - dont show name, columns

    $slugname = sanitize_title($name);
    $args = array('tax_query' => array(array(

                                             'taxonomy' => 'jurisdiction_continents',
                                             'field' => 'slug',
                                             'terms' => $slugname)), 
                                             'post_type' => 'jurisdiction',
                                             'orderby' => 'title', 
                                             'posts_per_page' => 35,
                                             'order' => 'ASC');

    $postslist = get_posts( $args );
    if ($postslist) {
        if($top) echo '<h4>'.$name.'</h4>';
        echo '<ul>';
        foreach ( $postslist as $post ) {
            setup_postdata($post);
            echo '<li><a href="'.get_permalink($post->ID).'">'.get_the_title($post->ID)."</a></li>";
        }
        echo '</ul>';
    }else{
        if($top) echo '<h4>'.$name.'</h4>';
    }                               
}

any help would be most appreciated, thanks :)

Answer 1

You could count the number of items and insert </ul><ul> after 50%.

Sample code, not tested:

if ($postslist) {

    $count = 1;

    if($top) echo '<h4>'.$name.'</h4>';
    echo '<ul>';
    foreach ( $postslist as $post ) {
        echo '<li><a href="'.get_permalink($post->ID).'">'.get_the_title($post->ID)."</a></li>";
        if ( 0 === $count % 10 )
            echo '</ul><ul>';

        $count += 1;
    }
    echo '</ul>';
}

And you don’t need setup_postdata($post); here.

Answer 2

to avoid getting an empty unordered list if there are exact multiples of 10 list items, and to split the posts list in half regardsless of its length, but have at least 10 items in the first unordered list, try this code:

if ($postslist) {

    $count = 0; 
    $half = max( 10, ceil( count( $postslist )/2 ) );

    if($top) echo '<h4>'.$name.'</h4>';
    echo '<ul>';
    foreach ( $postslist as $post ) {

        if ( $count != 0 && 0 === $count % $half )
            echo '</ul><ul>';

            echo '<li><a href="'.get_permalink($post->ID).'">'.$post.get_the_title($post->ID)."</a></li>";
        $count += 1;

         }
    echo '</ul>';
}