code: def merge_split(*paths):
    
    filtered_paths = filter(None, paths)
    return [p for p in ':'.join(filtered_paths).split(':') if p]
docs: Merge paths into a single path delimited by colons and split on colons to return
    a list of paths.
  
    :param paths: a variable length list of path strings
    :return: a list of paths from the merged path list split by colons