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

my $var = '';
my @array = ();

foreach my $line (<DATA>) {

	chomp $line;
	@array = split(/\t/,$line);
	$var = $array[0]; #<- not necessary, but wanted to mimic OP's code
	print "$var\n";

}

exit;

__DATA__
1	4	8	9
23	432	23	21
98	87	4	32