my @table=();
my $row=0;
while (@{$array_ref}) {
  for (1..$columns) {
    push @{$table[$row]}, shift @{$array_ref};
  }
  $row++;
}

##</code><code>##

my @table_linear;
map { push @table_linear, @{$_} }, @table;

##</code><code>##

my @table_linear;
foreach (@table) { 
  push @table_linear, @{$_} 
}