Lets say I have fields: name, number, id I have a data file: name1|number1|id1|name2|number2|id2...etc I want to replace every 3rd pipe with a new line or '\n' so I get: name1|number1|id1 name2|number2|id2 I'm having no luck with awk or sed. I've tried the following, and variations of: awk '/"\|"/{c++;if(c==10){sub("\|","\n");c=0}}1' inputfile.txt sed 's/"|"/"\n"/2' inputfile.txt It tells me awk: syntax error near line 1 awk: illegal statement near line 1 awk: syntax error near line 1 awk: bailing out near line 1 Any help is greatly appreciated! EDIT: Thank you!