#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $data_qn = 'data_file';

open($data_fh, '<', $data_qn)
   or die("Unable to open plot data \"$data_qn\": $!\n");

my @data;
while (<$data_fh>) {
   my @fields = split ' ';
   for my $row (0..$#fields) {
      push @{$data[$row]}, $fields[$row];
   }
}

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper \@data;