It looks like the format of your data in the final section "How can I correct the code so that my output is clean" is still fairly garbled.  I'll assume that you wanted things lined up like: 
                02:17   02:40   02:46   02:59
 Apples             0       0       0       0
 Grapes             7       7       7       7
 bricks             0       0       0       0
 TUBELIGHS        282     271     265     257

 TOTAL            289     278     272     264

[download]

If you want to do this using good ol' printf, which nobody has suggested (but was part of your original post), here is how I would do it: 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# Strict
use strict;
use warnings;

# Assign variables
my $plabels   = [ '02:17', '02:40', '02:46', '02:59' ];
my $pcounts = {
    'Apples'    => [ 0, 0, 0, 0, ],
    'Grapes'    => [ 7, 7, 7, 7, ],
    'bricks'    => [ 0, 0, 0, 0, ],
    'TUBELIGHS' => [ 282, 271, 265, 257, ],
};
my $p_ordered = [ qw( Apples Grapes bricks TUBELIGHS ) ];
my $ncols     = 4;  # Or $ncols = scalar @{$pcounts->{$p_ordered->[0]}
+};

# Calculate totals
my $pTOTAL = [ ];
foreach my $key (keys %$pcounts) {
    map { $pTOTAL->[$_] += $pcounts->{$key}->[$_] } (0..$ncols-1);
}

# Main program
print_row("", $plabels, " %7.7s");
map { print_row($_, $pcounts->{$_}, " %7d") } @$p_ordered;
print "\n";
print_row("TOTAL", $pTOTAL, " %7d");


# Subroutines
sub print_row {
    my ($label, $pvalues, $format) = @_;
    printf " %-12.12s", $label;
    map { printf $format, $_ } @$pvalues;
    print "\n";
}

[download]

Note that by using a subroutine print_row, you achieve a couple of things.  First, it greatly simplifies the main program down to just several lines.  And secondly, it lets you change the width of each item in the output, just by changing the format passed to the subroutine (eg. change " %7.7s" to " %-7.7s" to left-justify the labels, or change " %7.7s" and " %7d" to " %8.8s" and " %8d" respectively, to increase the width of each item to 8 characters).

PS. What the heck is a "TUBELIGH"? :)

s''(q.S:$/9=(T1';s;(..)(..);$..=substr+crypt($1,$2),2,3;eg;print$..$/

In reply to Re: arrange columns by liverpole
in thread arrange columns by Anonymous Monk

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