Is it possible to do this in perl?

Yes, absolutely

I can split the file using awk in bash but i'm unable to merge the first column to each new file. I know perl has a split function but that splits rows not columns. I have tried a few perl scripts but they are dependent on specific column numbers, so as ideas has dried up, I turn to you, Monks.

Please link the scripts you tried

Any such program is going to be "dependent on specific column numbers" in one way or another

In reply to Re: Split a large text file by columns by Anonymous Monk
in thread Split a large text file by columns by tc

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