will tell me how many matches a tournament has to go through if it is a best 2 out of 3 or 1 match style of tournament?

2/3 is 8 if I'm not mistaken. 1 game matches will play 11 times if not more. Those numbers may be a bit off but even if they are they are close. Check the PCQ threads that have popped up and will continue to do so.

Since it's Swiss format, the number of games shouldn't have an influence on the number of matches. It's all based on the number of players.

I mean like how many games should be played for

4 players?
5 - 8 players?
9 to 16 players?
17 to 32 players?
etc... for both 2 out of 3 and 1 game match structures

It should be how ever many rounds it takes until there is a maximum of one undefeated person left. I can't remember the exact scheme, but if I find it I'll post it up.

Not true.

In best 2 out of 3 style, a 16 player tournament needs 4 rounds to get 1 person with a 4-0 score.

In a 1 game style, I know a 16 player tournament is 5 or 6 games.

The thing is you should only be playing 4 rounds with 16 players. Then you go to a top four and that will determine the winner. I've run many tournaments in my area and worked with a good deal of other TO's and that's how it tournaments are meant to be run. 4 players is 2 rounds, 5-8 players is 3 rounds, 9-16 players is 4 rounds, 17-32 players is 5 rounds, 33-64 players is 6 rounds, 65-128 players is 7 rounds.

But 1 game matches have more games in them so a player doesn't get screwed on his draw and loses a match

That is assuming you are doing best 2/3. In a 1 game match system you play more rounds, so you use a different formula for calculating the number of rounds based on the number of players. I got the info somewhere, so I will post in when I find it.

thanks!