one   two   three
four  five  six  
seven eight nine 
ten 

##</code><code>##

use strict;

my @array = qw/one two three four five six seven eight nine ten/;
my $cols = 3;

my $max = 0;

foreach (@array) {
  if (length >= $max) {
    $max = length $_;
  }
}

foreach (@array) {
  my $length = length $_;
  if ($length < $max) {
    $_ .= (' ' x ($max - $length));
  }
}

while (@array) {
  unless (scalar @array >= $cols) {
    $cols = scalar @array;
  }
  print join(' ', splice(@array, 0, $cols) ), $/;
}