def get_input_data_as_list(file_name):
    """ 
    Reads in data from the given file and returns them as list
        with one entry per line and whitespaced trimmed 
    """
    with open(file_name) as input_file:
        #data_list = list(input_file.readlines())
        #data_list = list(map(list, input_file.readlines()))
        data_list = input_file.readlines()
        data_list = [str.strip(line) for line in data_list]
    return data_list