def readFile(filepath):
    """Gets string representing the path of the file to be processed
        and returns it as a list. It will omit blank lines.

    Parameters
    ----------
    filepath : str
        The path of the filename to be processed

    Returns
    -------
    lines
        a list that contains the lines of the file
    """

    try:
        with open(filepath) as f_in:
            lines = list(line for line in (l.strip() for l in f_in) if line)
    except IOError as err:
        print(err)
        return None
    if not lines:
        print("Empty file")
        exit(1)
    return lines