Magento: Set number of columns in grid

A quick Magento tip.

If you would like to set the number of columns in a grid, you can do this using the layout.xml. Just call setColumnCount using <action />. This has to be done on the grid block.

For example, if you would like to set the number of columns in the product grid on the category page, you could do this using the following XML.

<catalog_category_default>
    <reference name="product_list">
        <action method="setColumnCount"><count>3</count></action>
    </reference>
</catalog_category_default>

The name of the parameter (<count/>) could be anything, but must be specified. Just specifying 3 between <action/> doesn’t work.