hervebags:

I'd do it something^[1] like this:

my @cols_to_keep = (0, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 .. 18);
while (my $line = readline(ARGV)) {
    my @fields = split /\s+/, $line;
    print FILE2 join(" ", @fields[@cols_to_keep]), "\n";
}
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[1] i.e., untested, etc.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.