remove back ticks in markdown-path

entrypoint/entrypoint/converter.py

@@ -358,10 +358,25 @@ def to_markdown(vulns,
     return markdown
 
 
-def merge_cell(pkg: str):
+def merge_cell(a_string: str):
+    """
+    This function expects a string of data
+    that is intended to be placed in a markdown
+    table. The provided data may include multiple
+    elements in a string, such as multiple PURLs
+    separated with a semi-colon character ';'.
+    This function splits the provided string
+    so that multiple elements can fit in one
+    cell in a markdown table.
+    """
+
+    # return early on empty string
+    if a_string == "":
+        return ""
+
     # we may have multiple PURLs for a single CVE,
     # so split purls into a list we can iterate on
-    original_list = pkg.split(";")
+    original_list = a_string.split(";")
     seen = set()
     unique_list = []
 
@@ -374,9 +389,13 @@ def merge_cell(pkg: str):
 
     unique_formatted = []
     for each in unique_list:
+        # make each element preformatted text,
+        # otherwise the markdown report renders
+        # with malformed characters on GitHub
         each = f"`{each}`"
         unique_formatted.append(each)
 
+    # separate multiple elements in cell with HTML break characters
     merged_cell = '<br><br>'.join(unique_formatted)
     return merged_cell