from typing import List


def split_and_strip(s: str, sep=",") -> List[str]:
    """Split a string representing a comma separated list of strings into a list of strings
    where each element has been stripped. If the string has no elements an empty list is returned."""
    string_list: List[str] = []
    if s is not None and isinstance(s, str):
        string_list = [s.strip() for s in s.split(sep)]

    return string_list