Question

I have a list and I want to split it into sub lists with +/- 1 items.

Example

I have a list with 17 items in it. What I want is to split it into 4 sub lists like these

1.List = 5 elements
2.List = 4 elements
3.List = 4 elements
4.List = 4 elements

How can I do that? What algorithm I should use here?

Answer 1

Use integer division to get the items in each group and then use modular division to get the number of the first n groups that will have +1 item. For example:
17 items into 4 groups:

• 17 / 4 = 4 – So there will be 4 groups with 4 elements.
• 17 % 4 = 1 – So the first 1 groups will have an additional 1 element.

Another example:

• 18 / 4 = 4 – So there will be 4 groups with 4 elements.
• 18 % 4 = 2 – So the first 2 groups will have an additional 1 element.