Topological data analysis (or TDA) is a growing discipline with great potential. Unfortunately, the difficulty of learning the software used to perform TDA on real datasets is a nontrivial task adds an oft intimidating barrier to entry. This Gist provides a straightforward tutorial to using the TDAstats package to conduct topological data analysis (specifically, persistent homology using Vietoris-Rips simplicial complexes) in R.
N.B. this Gist largely assumes the reader is familiar with a Vietoris-Rips simplicial complex, persistent homology, topological barcodes, and persistence diagrams. Please make sure you have at least a basic understanding of these terms prior to proceeding.
