Here is a generic solution that returns a reference to an array of arrays. You can then output that formatted any way you want. For example if you wanted HTML table rows you could use print '<tr>' . (join '', map { "<td>$_</td>" } @cols) . "</tr>\n";

my @data = 11 .. 42;
my $cols = 7;
my $ref = get_cols( $cols, \@data );

# display the data
for my $row ( @$ref ) {
    my @cols = @$row;
    print "@cols\n";
}

sub get_cols {
    my ( $cols, $data_ref ) = @_;
    my $count = 0;
    my @ary;
    for my $item ( @$data_ref ) {
        $count++ % $cols ? push @{$ary[-1]}, $item : push @ary, [$item
+];
    }
  return \@ary;
}

__DATA__
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
32 33 34 35 36 37 38
39 40 41 42
[download]

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print

sub spread {
    return ($_[0] % $_[1])?join("-", ((int($_[0] / ($_[1] - 1))) x ($_
+[1]-1), ($_[0] % ($_[1] - 1)))):join("-", (int($_[0] / $_[1])) x $_[1
+]);
}
print spread(19,4); #test first branch of ?:
print spread(25,5); #test second branch of ?:
[download]

Same code ( what is this, Lisp? ), reformatted to be more readable and do a sanity check for the zero-columns case. Note that it doesn't seem to do exactly what the questioner asked - see the 22/7 case:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

while (<DATA> ) {
    my ( $items, $cols ) = split;
    print "Spread for $items, $cols = ", 
            spread( $items, $cols ), 
            "\n";
}
    
sub spread {
    my ($a, $cols) = @_;
    $a ||= 0;
    return unless $cols > 0; # avoid nasty surprises
    return $a if $cols == 1; #trivial case 
    
    if ( $a % $cols) {
         return join '-', (  (int( $a / ($cols - 1) ))  x ( $cols - 1)
+, ( $a % ($cols - 1)));
    } else {
        return join '-', (int ( $a / $cols)) x $cols;
    }
}

__DATA__
19 3
20 5
22 7
2 47
0 9
899 0
[download]

Results:

Spread for 19, 3 = 9-9-1
Spread for 20, 5 = 4-4-4-4-4
Spread for 22, 7 = 3-3-3-3-3-3-4
Spread for 2, 47 = 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
+-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-2
Spread for 0, 9 = 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Spread for 899, 0 =
[download]

I'm not sure of any way I can explain what I mean any further than I did. Basically, what I want is the first (Columns_Number - 1) columns to have the same number of digits in them, and the last column will have the remainder, which would be <= the total number to spread. The only real easy way I can think of to explain it would be an example of a total of 19, spread over 5 columns, which would turn out as 4-4-4-4-3.

That is going to be as best I can possibly explain "evenly" and "remainder goes to last column" in my own words. Sorry if this leaves any gaping holes in my request. =/

---

“A script is what you give the actors. A program is what you give the audience.” ~ Larry Wall

$items_per_column = 5;
@items = qw(aaa bbb ccc ddd eee fff ggg hhh iii jjj kkk lll mmm);
$counter = 0;
for(@items) { print $_,"\t"; $counter++; if ($counter == $items_per_co
+lumn) { $counter = 0; print "\n"; }
}
[download]

use strict;
use warnings;

my @data = 1 .. 99; 
my $cols = 6 ;

my $items = $#data + 1;
my $rows  = int ($items / $cols);
$rows += 1 if ($items % $cols);

for my $r (1..$rows){
  for my $c (1..$cols){ 
    my $i = ($r - 1) + ($c - 1) * $rows;
    print $data[$i]."\t";
  }
  print "\n";
}
[download]

Your code, as simple as it may be, worked as one of the best, except for one fatal flaw. Often times, when I would do different variations of items and columns, which would return maybe 1 or 0 as the final column's amount of items, it would throw a wrench into the entire assembly. Another instance was when I would try things such as FamousLongAgo did, such as doing erroristic combinations of like 99 rows of 2 items, or 0 rows of 99 items. Not saying I need these precautions, but you never know where being safe may help in appliance.

---

“A script is what you give the actors. A program is what you give the audience.” ~ Larry Wall