def list_clean(string):
    """ transforms a comma seperated string to a list, stripping whitespaces
    "HOME, WORK,pref" -> ['HOME', 'WORK', 'pref']

    string: string of comma seperated elements
    returns: list()
    """

    string = string.split(',')
    rstring = list()
    for element in string:
        rstring.append(element.strip(' '))
    return rstring