i'm trying to open a file with three or more columns and an undetermined, but finite number of rows. I want to define an array for each row with each element of the row as a sub array. The columns are separated by tabs or spaces.

Here's the file:

12x3.12z34b.342sd3.sds 454.23.23.232 aSDGgsOds
4z3x3.134b.332sSSsd3.Ccsds 354.23.2113.232 aSDffGgds
12x333.123ww4b.342sed3.sdsO 22454.23.23.20032 BSDGgds
...

i'm trying it like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use warnings;
use strict;

open (FILE, xyz.txt) or die " $!";
   our @lines<FILE>;
   chomp @lines;
close (FILE);

for (@lines) {
  $/="\t|' '";      # field sperator is either tab or ' '
  our @lines=([split / /, $_]);
}

print "First element \'$lines[0][0]\'\n";
print "Second element \'$lines[0][1]\'\n";
print "Third element \'$lines[0][2]\'\n";
print "First element \'$lines[1][0]\'\n";
...

...
print "First element \'$lines{0}->{first]\'\n";
print "Second element \'$lines{0}->{second}\'\n";
print "Third element \'$lines{0}->third}\'\n";
print "First element \'$lines{1}->{first}\'\n";
...