#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

# declare your variables
my $varFile = "variables.txt";
my ($var1,$var2,$var3);

# open the file
open DATA, $varFile or die "Can't open file: $!";
  while (<DATA>) {
# chomp the line
    chomp;
# split the line into values and assign them to your variables
    ($var1,$var2,$var3) = split /\|/;
  }
# close the file
close DATA;