how can I return several query results per table row?

I'm trying to figure out how I can format the results from a MySQL query so that I can display several records per row, i.e., I'd like to be able to format the results in a table with 3 columns, and as many rows as needed. Please excuse my inability to be concise - my brain seems to be fried from a long day. I'm used to returning query results in a loop which prints out each record in a row: while (list($FirstName, $LastName) = mysql_fetch_row($result)) { echo " <tr> <td>$FirstName $LastName</td> </tr> "; } however that returns a page that looks like this: Joe Cool John Doe Homer Simpson Bob Vila Dr. Suess Captain Crunch I'm hoping to display the results so that I can have several results per line like so: Joe Cool John Doe Homer Simpson Bob Vila Dr. Suess Captain Crunch in my naïve thinking, I'm guessing that I'd need to count the query results (mysql_num_rows) and divide them by 3. so if I had 25 records and I wanted them listed 3 per line, I would divide 25/3 = 8.33 and round it up to the next number meaning I would have 9 rows, the last row only having one record. this is about as far as I get before I start getting a bad headache. ;) I'm hoping someone might know of an article/tutorial on how to accomplish this so I don't need to reinvent the wheel. many thanks in advance, brian