#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings 'all';

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

my $max   = -1;

$_ > $max && ($max = $_) for map {length} @array;

while (@array) {
    print join " " => map {sprintf "%-${max}s" => $_}
                           splice @array => 0, $cols;
    print "\n";
}