#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $n_cols = 5;
my @data = ('1'..'12');

print "<table>\n";

while (@data) {
  print '<tr><td>'
      . (join "</td>\n    <td>", (@data, ('&nbsp;')x$n_cols)[0..$n_cols - 1])
      . '</td></tr>' 
      . "\n";
  @data = @data[$n_cols..$#data];
}

print "</table>\n";