code: static String[] getListFromProperty(Map<String, String> properties, String key) {
      String propValue = properties.get(key);
      if (propValue != null) {
        return parseAsCsv(key, propValue);
      }
      return new String[0];
    }
docs: Transforms a comma-separated list String property in to a array of trimmed strings.
  <p>
  This works even if they are separated by whitespace characters (space char, EOL, ...)