Well you have totally got me on the logic! Why not just print "NAME DESCRIPTION DATE\n" for 1..$n; anyway to convert what you have to what you say you want:

while(<DATA>){
    s{(NAME)\d*\s*(DESC)\d*\s*(DATE)\d*\s*}
     {$1 ${2}RIPTION $3\n}g;
    print;
}
__DATA__
NAME010 DESC025 DATE009
NAME011 DESC035 DATE009
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In general there is nothing that perl *can't do* when it comes to munging text.