def normalize_key(key, strip_prefix=False):
    """Use this function to normalize keys prior to adding to the PROPS
dictionary. Normalizing in this case means using a consistent format
for strings."""
    key = key.upper()
    key = key.replace('-', '_')
    if strip_prefix and key.startswith('PGHOPS_'):
        key = key.replace('PGHOPS_', '', 1)
    return key
