# skbio.tree.TreeNode.traverse

`TreeNode.``traverse`(self_before=True, self_after=False, include_self=True)

  Returns iterator over descendants

  State: Experimental as of 0.4.0.

  This is a depth-first traversal. Since the trees are not binary, preorder and postorder traversals are possible, but inorder traversals would depend on the data in the tree and are not handled here.

  Parameters:

  self_before : bool

  > includes each node before its descendants if True

  self_after : bool

  > includes each node after its descendants if True

  include_self : bool

  > include the initial node if True

  `self_before` and `self_after` are independent. If neither is `True`,

  only terminal nodes will be returned.

  Note that if self is terminal, it will only be included once even if

  `self_before` and `self_after` are both `True`.

  See also

  `preorder`, `postorder`, `pre_and_postorder`, `levelorder`, `tips`, `non_tips`

  Examples

      >>> from skbio import TreeNode
      >>> tree = TreeNode.read(["((a,b)c);"])
      >>> for node in tree.traverse():
      ...     print(node.name)
      None
      c
      a
      b