def parse_str_list(list_str):
    """ Parse a string containing comma separated values and return a list of
    strings.

    :param list_str: a string containing a comma separated list of strings
    :return: a list of string Python builtin object.
    """
    # remove all whitespace characters (space, tab, newline, etc.) and ignore
    # possible ending coma with filter.
    return list(filter(None, ''.join(list_str.split()).split(',')))