VALUES="
val1    ;val2    ;val3
another1;another2;another3
"

VALUES="
val1    ;val2    ;val3
another1;another2;another3
"
echo "$VALUES" | while IFS=' ;' read v1 v2 v3; do
    [[ -z $v1 && -z $v2 && -z $v3 ]] && continue
    echo "v1=$v1  v2=$v2  v3=$v3"
done

v1=val1  v2=val2  v3=val3
v1=another1  v2=another2  v3=another3

typeset -a values
typeset -i i=0
echo "$VALUES" | while IFS=' ;' read v1 v2 v3; do
    [[ -z $v1 && -z $v2 && -z $v3 ]] && continue
    values[i]=$v1
    values[i+1]=$v2
    values[i+2]=$v3
    ((i+=3))
done

for i in "${!values[@]}"; do printf "%dt%sn" $i "${values[i]}"; done

0   val1
1   val2
2   val3
3   another1
4   another2
5   another3

echo "$VALUES"|awk -F' *; *' 'NF>1{print $1, $2, $3}'
val1 val2 val3
another1 another2 another3