#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use warnings;

# create array ref and count
my $matrix=();
my $i=0;

open PROFILES, 'profile/profile.db' or die $!;
while (<PROFILES>) {
  chomp;

  # add array as array ref to array ref
  @{$matrix->[$i]} =  split /\t/; 
  $i++;
}
close(PROFILES);

# access referenced data like this

print $matrix->[1]->[6];

# (7th element of 2nd row generally :)
# should start at 0,0

exit(0);