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+-- let's recursively define a tree type with
+-- values of some type attached to each node
+
+data Tree a = Empty | Node a [Tree a] deriving (Show)
+
+
+-- this tree structure admits an arbitrary number of
+-- trees hanging from each node
+
+
+-- let's give an example
+
+tree :: Tree Integer
+tree = Node 1 [
+           Node 2 [
+               Node 3 [],
+               Node 4 []
+           ],
+           Node 5 [
+               Node 6 [],
+               Node 7 []
+           ]
+       ]
+
+
+-- this is equivalent to the following
+-- tree structure:
+--       1
+--      / \
+--     2   5
+--    / \ / \
+--   3  4 6  7
+
+
+-- depth-first search traversal of Tree a
+-- in this example we use concatMap
+
+depthFirst :: Tree a -> [a]
+depthFirst Empty = []
+depthFirst (Node x ts) = x : concatMap depthFirst ts
+
+
+-- breadth-first search traversal of Tree a
+-- in this example we use concatMap, foldl and Monoid typeclass
+
+breadthFirst :: Tree a -> [a]
+breadthFirst Empty = []
+breadthFirst (Node x ts) = x : (a ++ concatMap breadthFirst b)
+    where (a, b) = foldl mappend mempty (map pruneRoot ts)
+          pruneRoot Empty = mempty
+          pruneRoot (Node x ts) = ([x], ts)
+
+-- the idea is to use an accumulator of type ([a], [Tree a])
+-- we take advantage of the fact that this is in fact a Monoid
+-- on the left keep roots pruned so far
+-- on the right keep trees hanging from the roots we just pruned
+
+
+main = do
+
+  putStrLn("tree: " ++ show tree)
+
+  putStrLn("depth-first traversal: " ++ show (depthFirst tree))
+
+  putStrLn("breadth-first traversal: " ++ show (breadthFirst tree))