Type Ratio_Type

    x As _Integer64

    y As _Integer64

    description As String

    size As _Integer64

    scale As _Integer64

    total As _Integer64

    empty As _Integer64

End Type



Dim Shared Ratio(8) As Ratio_Type

Dim As Long items

Screen _NewImage(1280, 720, 32)



InitRatios

Do

    Cls

    Input "Enter the number of items =>"; items

    If items <= 0 Then System

    CalculateGrids items

    SortGrids

    DisplayGrids

    Print: Print "Press <ANY KEY> to restart"

    pause$ = Input$(1)

Loop



Sub DisplayGrids

    Print

    Color &HFF00FF00&&

    Print "Description                                                      Ratio  Scaler  Grid  Empty"

    Color &HFFFFFFFF&&

    format$ = "\                                                              \  ##:##    ###    ##x##  ### "

    For i = 1 To UBound(Ratio)

      ? using format$;ratio(i).description,ratio(i).x,ratio(i).y, ratio(i).scale, ratio(i).x*ratio(i).scale,_

              ratio(i).y*ratio(i).scale, ratio(i).empty

    Next

End Sub



Sub SortGrids

    For i = 1 To UBound(Ratio)

        For j = i + 1 To UBound(Ratio)

            If Ratio(i).empty > Ratio(j).empty Then Swap Ratio(i), Ratio(j)

    Next j, i

End Sub



Sub CalculateGrids (items)

    For i = 1 To UBound(Ratio)

        n = 1

        Do Until Ratio(i).size * n ^ 2 >= items

            n = n + 1

        Loop

        Ratio(i).scale = n 'this is the scaler

        Ratio(i).total = Ratio(i).size * n ^ 2 'this is the total number of cells

        Ratio(i).empty = Ratio(i).total - items

    Next

End Sub



Sub InitRatios

    RatioData:

    Data 1,1,Square (profile pictures; social media)

    Data 2,3,Classic 35mm (4x6; 6x9; etc.)

    Data 5,7,5 x 7 photo

    Data 17,22,Standard letter size (8.5x11)

    Data 4,3,Older PC monitor + analog TV (640x480; 1024x768; etc.)

    Data 4,5,Art prints + medium format (8x10; 16x20)

    Data 11,14,legal paper (11x14)

    Data 16,9,Standard HD display (1920x1080; 1280x720; etc.)

    For i = 1 To UBound(Ratio)

        Read Ratio(i).x, Ratio(i).y, Ratio(i).description

        Ratio(i).size = Ratio(i).x * Ratio(i).y

    Next

End Sub

(Yesterday, 06:54 PM)SMcNeill Wrote: That's cause I just didn't leave enough digits for such big values.  Change that format$ to add a few ## symbols.

(Yesterday, 07:09 PM)madscijr Wrote:

(Yesterday, 06:54 PM)SMcNeill Wrote: That's cause I just didn't leave enough digits for such big values.  Change that format$ to add a few ## symbols.

Impressive how you boiled it down to be so simple.
However I'm not sure one of them is working... 
Entering 555 for the # of items, here's a side-by-side comparison for the 2 programs...

Layout	Steve.Cols	Mad.Cols	Steve.Rows	Mad.Rows	Steve.Empty	Mad.Empty
HD display	32	33	18	17	21	6
Letter Size	34	20	44	20	941	5
Square	24	24	24	24	21	21

Thoughts?

(Yesterday, 07:29 PM)SMcNeill Wrote: 33:17 isn't the same ratio as 16:9, so yours is failing to match the grid somewhere.

16:9 is a 1.77777 ratio.
33:17 is a 1.9411 ratio.

Those aren't the same at all.  

As for the letter size, that's because I swapped it to an integer ratio and not anything fractional.  (17 x 22 instead of 8.5 x 11)  I figure it's hard to break your items into half-grids like that, so I wanted to go with an integer ratio.  

And again, the ratio for yours isn't holding true to that 17x22 ratio.  In fact, I'm not even certain how yours can call that a solution.

20 rows, 20 columns = 400 items for your grid.   How are you going to put your 555 items into the grid, and still have 5 empty spaces left over?  

Something is wrong with the math on yours, somewhere along the way.