def trim(gid_list):
    """
    Remove an underscore and any following characters from each element in a list of strings
    Add a terminal period for easy hierarchical comparison
    Intended to remove the version number from gids
    """
    result = []
    for gid in gid_list:
        gid = gid.split("_")
        result.append(gid[0] + '.')
    return result