Wrangling data into networks with igraph

Understanding trends in goods pricing is critical in many applications. For instance, a chain of gas stations may want to understand the differences in pricing across its locations. Often, local laws require gas stations within a certain distance of each other to be priced within a certain range of each other, creating local distributions of pricing across chains and within chains. Understanding this can help optimize prices regionally given constraints in each area or tie the data back to regional sales data to see how price distributions impact sales.

Consumers can also benefit from analyses of goods pricing across geographic areas. Consider local food markets in the developing world. Prices are rarely fixed within a country or region. They are dictated by supply, demand, and cost to the merchant selling the goods. Grains may need to be imported from other countries, whose prices will fluctuate with economic and climate conditions. Fruit...