Each column is separated by one or more white space. so my code should look something like this, #### $ENV{HOME}='C:\Documents and Settings\kompeS\Desktop\PERL SCRIPTS'; #### open (FILE,"$file"); close(FILE); #### tie (@data,'Tie::File',$file, mode=>O_RDWR) or die "Can't tie to $file:$^E\n"; #### @list=split(/ /,@data);