$PipeCounter = y/|/|/;

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;

while (<DATA>) {
    print "Line $. has ", y/|/|/, "\n";
}

__DATA__

|||||
!|@|#|$|%|
|1|2|3|4|
|q|w|e|r|t
y|u|i|o|p
A|S|D|F|G|H
Z|X|C|V|B|N|

##</code><code>##

Line 1 has 0
Line 2 has 5
Line 3 has 5
Line 4 has 5
Line 5 has 5
Line 6 has 4
Line 7 has 5
Line 8 has 6