sub countLeadingTabSpaces {
	my($data) = @_;
	my @string=split(/\t/,$data);
		my $numberofLeadingTabs=0;
		my $size = @string;
		my $TabSpace = "";
		my $loopBreak = 0;
		for (my $count = 0; $count < $size; $count++)
		{
			if($loopBreak==0)
			{
				if($string[$count] =~/([A-Za-z0-9@])/)
				{
					$loopBreak = 1;
				}else{
					++$numberofLeadingTabs;
				}
			}
		}		
		print "=>NumberofLeadingTabs: ".$numberofLeadingTabs;
		return $numberofLeadingTabs;
}

countLeadingTabSpaces("\t\t!\tfoo"); # prints "3" but only has two leading tabs!

##</code><code>##

my $numberofLeadingTabs = 0;
if ($data =~ /^(\t+)/) {
    my $tabs = $1;
    $numberofLeadingTabs = length $tabs;
};