use strict;

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

my $max = 0;
$max < length($_) and $max = length($_) for @array;
my $output = "";
my @copy = @array;
while (@copy) {
  $output .= join(" ", map sprintf("%-${max}s", $_), splice @copy, 0, 3)."\n";
}
print $output;