def split_comments(line, comment_char=';'):
    """
    Splits `line` at the first occurence of `comment_char`.

    Parameters
    ----------
    line: str
    comment_char: str

    Returns
    -------
    tuple[str, str]
        `line` before and after `comment_char`, respectively. If `line` does
        not contain `comment_char`, the second element will be an empty string.
    """
    split = line.split(comment_char, 1)
    data = split[0].strip()
    if len(split) == 1:
        return data, ''
    else:
        return data, split[1].strip()