in reply to DBI output in 3 columns

This code pretty much meets your specs. It can handle 0-600 data items. I've left DBI specifics out for illustration purposes. Not pretty, but clear. Would've been less kludgey if it were 1-600 instead of 0-600. 
my $ctr = 0;
for ($ctr = 0; $ctr < 601; $ctr++) {
   $indexs[$ctr] = "-$ctr-";
}
$ctr = 0;
print "<html><body><table border=1>";
while ($ctr < 201) {
   print "<tr><td>";
   if ($indexs[$ctr]) {
      print $indexs[$ctr];   ### first col current row ($ctr)
   } else {
      print '&nbsp;';
   }
   print '</td><td>';
   if (($indexs[$ctr + 201]) and ($ctr+201 != 401)) {
      print $indexs[$ctr + 201];   ### second col current row ($ctr)
   } else {
      print '&nbsp;';
   }
   print "</td><td>";
   if ($indexs[$ctr + 401]) {
      print $indexs[$ctr + 401];   ### third col current row ($ctr)
   } else {
      print '&nbsp;';
   }
   print "</td></tr>\n";
   $ctr++;
}

print "</table></body></htm>\n";

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