title: Algorithm to evenly distribute items into 3 columns
body: <p>I'm looking for an algorithm that will evenly distribute 1 to many items into three columns.  No column can have more than one more item than any other column.  I typed up an example of what I'm looking for below.  Adding up Col1,Col2, and Col3 should equal ItemCount.</p>
  
  <p>Edit:  Also, the items are alpha-numeric and must be ordered within the column.  The last item in the column has to be less than the first item in the next column.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Items         Col1,Col2,Col3
  A             A
  AB            A,B
  ABC           A,B,C
  ABCD          AB,C,D
  ABCDE         AB,CD,E
  ABCDEF        AB,CD,EF
  ABCDEFG       ABC,DE,FG
  ABCDEFGH      ABC,DEF,GH
  ABCDEFGHI     ABC,DEF,GHI
  ABCDEFHGIJ    ABCD,EFG,HIJ
  ABCDEFHGIJK   ABCD,EFGH,IJK
  </code></pre>