using While to create rows

Using a table i am to pull out data from my MySQL data-base, generaly works fine but what i need to do is pull the data out then go on to a new column of the same row but want it to go 3 columns then make a new row, so pull data out tell it has 3 columns with data then go to a new row then do another 3 columns filled out. The current one does 1 column then does a new row so how would i go about doing 3 columns then going to a new row after it has 3? Thanks in advance this is my current set up

PHP Code:

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<?php
               while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
                   echo "<tr>";
                   echo "<td>".$row["thedate"]."</td>";
                   echo "</tr>";
               }

            ?>

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This is the method that I use

PHP Code:

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$column = 3;
$rowend = 1;
echo '<table><tr>';
//Run your loop here

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
                   echo "<td>".$row["thedate"]."</td>";

if ($rowend == $column){ echo "</tr><tr>"; $rowend=0;}
$rowend++;
}
echo '</tr></table>'; 


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