Basic method taken from http://stackoverflow.com/a/236803

std::vector<std::string> split(const std::string& val, const char c, const int flags)
{
    std::vector<std::string> res;

    std::stringstream ss;
    ss.str(val);

    std::string item;
    while(std::getline(ss, item, c)) {
        if(flags & STRIP_SPACES) {
            boost::trim(item);
        }

        if(!(flags & REMOVE_EMPTY) || !item.empty()) {
            res.push_back(std::move(item));
        }
    }

    return res;
}