Generating a perfectly distributed grid from array
- by zath
I'm looking for a formula or rule that will allow me to distribute n characters into a n*n grid with as perfect of a distribution as possible. Let's say we have an array of 5 characters, A through E. Here's an example of how it definitely shouldn't turn out:
A B C D E
B C D E A
C D E A B
D E A B C
E A B C D
The pattern is very clear here, it doesn't look "random". It would look better this way:
A B C D E
D E A B C
B C D E A
E A B C D
C D E A B
What I basically did here was place the A B C D E on the first row, then shift it by 2 on the second row, by 4 on the third row, 1 on the fourth row and 3 on the fifth row.
Compared to the very bad example, this one shows no clear pattern. Though I'm certainly hoping there is a pattern, so I can use it to calculate not only small arrays such as this one, but arrays of any size. Any ideas as to how this can be accomplished?
