Uses csv.DictReader and StringIO to read a sample csv file. No external file is required.

csv_dictreader_example.py

import csv
import StringIO
# cStringIO is faster, but cannot handle unicode characters

def main():
    f = StringIO.StringIO('language,greeting\nenglish,hello\nspanish,hola')
    for _dict in csv.DictReader(f):
        print _dict

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()