Create specified size matrix from vector

I'd like to specify a matrix size and have it filled with elements from a vector. For this example, I have a vector containing state names and I want to have them fill a 7x4 matrix. I'm running into 2 issues with the attached sheet:

1. I'm very rusty on programming and matrix operations, so the only way I've been able to fill a matrix at the size I want is to reference the specific elements of the vector. I'm sure there's a simpler way to do this using a loop but I haven't been able to figure it out
2. If the vector changes size, I'd still like to be able to output a matrix with zeroes filling the rest of the nodes. Currently, if I set up a 7x4 matrix and the vector only contains 16 states, the output matrix errors out

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!