Count data and split into two columns - php

Question

I am tweaking a facebook album class that loops and echos data. The problem is that when it echos it loops into one column and I want to separate it into 2 columns. This is what it looks like now:
foreach($json->data as $v)
{
echo "<a class='ImageLink' rel='lightbox[photos]' href = '".$v->source."'><img style='margin:10px;' width='110px' src='".$v->picture."' /></a>";
}
I am trying to do something like so:
$count = count($json->data);
$half_count = $count/2;
echo "<ul class='float:left;'>";
$counter = 0;
foreach($json->data as $v)
{
if ($counter == $half_count +1){echo "<ul class='float:left;'>";}
echo "<li>". $v->picture ."</li>";
if ($counter == $half_count){ echo "</ul>";}
$counter++;
}
echo "</ul>";
But when I use the count function on $json->data and echo that it gives me an array. Please help;

Answer 1

"But when I use the count function on $json->data and echo that it gives me an array." <- Count will always return an int.
Try the following correction to your code:
$count = count($json->data);
$half_count = ceil($count / 2); // make sure to ceil to an int. This will have your first column 1 larger than the second column when the count is odd
echo '<ul style="float:left">';
$counter = 0;
foreach($json->data as $v) {
echo '<li>' , $v->picture , '</li>';
$counter += 1;
if ($counter == $half_count && $count != 1) {
echo '</ul><ul style="float:right">';
}
}
echo "</ul>";