I have a recent file I am trying to parse that looks like this:

value_one:1:value_two:2:value_three:3

value_one matches to 1
value_two matches to 2
value_three matches to 3


the semi-colons not only seperate the tags to their corresponding values, but also seperate tag/value pairs from one another

is there anyway to parse this file so that I can get an output that looks like this:

1
2
3

and also another output that looks like this:

value_one
value_two
value_three


any help appreciated

Try...

$ awk -v RS=: 'NR%2==0' file1
1
2
3

$ awk -v RS=: 'NR%2==1' file1
value_one
value_two
value_three

that worked very well...can you explain NR%2==0 term...and also how do i get rid of the extra new line at the end???