What are monads and functors in Haskell? How are they used for handling side effects?

In Haskell, monads and functors are powerful abstractions that play a crucial role in functional programming, particularly for handling side effects in a pure and composable manner. Let's explore the concepts of monads and functors and how they are used for handling side effects in Haskell. Functors: Functors are a fundamental concept in Haskell that allow you to apply a function to a value within a context. In other words, a functor applies a pure function to a wrapped value, preserving the context. Functors provide a way to map over values that are encapsulated in some sort of container or context. In Haskell, the `Functor` type class captures the essence of a functor. Any type that implements the `Functor` type class can be considered a functor. The key function of the `Functor` type class is `fmap`, which allows you to apply a function to the encapsulated value. ``` haskell`class Functor f where fmap :: (a -> b) -> f a -> f b` ``` For example, the `Maybe` type is a functor in Haskell. It represents a computat....