Sorry about the confusion just now.. Try something like this:

        my @list = sort keys %Commands;
        $colwidth = length((sort {length($b) <=> length($a)} @list)[0]
+ ) +1;
        $ncol = int( $Users{$userid}{'screenwidth'}/$colwidth );
        $nrow = int( scalar(@list) / $ncol );
        $nrow++ if ( scalar(@list) % $ncol );
        $fmt = "%-${colwidth}s";

        foreach my $r ( 0 .. $nrow-1 )
        {
            my $ind = @help;
            $help[$ind] = '';
            foreach my $c ( 0 .. $ncol-1 )
            {
                my $i = $c * $nrow + $r;
                $help[$ind] .= sprintf( $fmt, $list[$i] ) if($list[$i]
+);
            }
        }
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(Shamelessly cut&pasted from my own code, stolen from somewhere else, but I've forgotten where.. )

C.