def clean_labels(_labels, keep=1):
    """An input list of string numeric labels is split and casted to int

    Args:
        _labels (list): List of strings to be processed
        keep (int, optional): [description]. Defaults to 1. Tells the function
            if either the labels or the value is to be kept

    Returns:
        list: list of cleaned up strings or integers
    """
    cleaned = []
    for label in _labels:
        item = label.split('-')[keep]
        if keep:
            item = int(item)
        cleaned.append(item)
    return cleaned