If all you need to do is calculate the sums then this might help: 
my %count;
while (my $line = <DATA>) {
    chomp $line;
    my @cols = split("\t",$line);
    $count{$_} += $cols[$_] for 0 .. $#cols;
}
for my $col_num (sort { $a <=> $b } keys %count) {
    print "Total for column $col_num: $count{$col_num}\n";
}

__DATA__
1    2    3    4
3    4    5    6
6    7    8    9

[download]
Output: 
Total for column 0: 10
Total for column 1: 13
Total for column 2: 16
Total for column 3: 19

[download]

In reply to Re: How can you make this script general? by tangent
in thread How can you make this script general? by Anonymous Monk

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