I have data PackageDec = Pkg String deriving Show and a parser for it packageP :: Parser PackageDec packageP = do literal “package" x <- identifier xs <- many ((:) <$> char '.' <*> identifier) return $ Pkg . concat $ (x:xs) so I’m parsing for this sort of string “package some.sort.of.name” and I’m trying to rewrite the packageP parser in applicative style. As a not quite correct start I have packageP' :: Parser PackageDec packageP' = literal "package" >> Pkg . concat <$> many ((:) <$> char '.' <*> identifier) but I can’t see how to get the ‘first’ identifier into this sequence - i.e. the bit that corresponds to x <- identifier in the monadic version. in ghci λ-> :t many ((:) <$> char '.' <*> identifier) many ((:) <$> char '.' <*> identifier) :: Parser [[Char]] so I think that somehow I need to get the ‘first’ identifier into a list just after Pkg . concat so that the whole list gets flattened and everybody is happy! Any help appreciated. Thanks Mike