Cool snippet to quickly import data in any desired format from csv files...

gistfile1.txt

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;


namespace myGists
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Load data from csv files in a simple, elegant way...
    /// </summary>
    public class CSVLoader
    {

        #region generic File reading methods

        /// <summary>
        /// Converts a CSV-File to any desired Format. The File is read line by line 
        /// and splitted with the separator
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="TTarget">The type of the target.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="fullFileName">The filename.</param>
        /// <param name="projection">The projection.</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private static IEnumerable<TTarget> ConvertCsvTo<TTarget>(string fullFileName, Func<string[], TTarget> projection)
        {
            return ConvertCsvTo(
                fullFileName,
                '|',                       // use our default seperator.
                rowIndex => rowIndex > 0,  // do NOT import header row as data column!
                projection,
                Encoding.UTF7);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Converts a CSV-File to any desired Format. The File is read line by line
        /// and splitted with the separator
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="TTarget">The type of the target.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="fullFileName">The filename.</param>
        /// <param name="separator">The separator.</param>
        /// <param name="predicateRowCount">The predicate determining wether a row should be parsed.
        /// The predicate expression is evaluated based on the current row index.</param>
        /// <param name="projection">The projection.</param>
        /// <param name="encodingType">Type of the encoding.</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private static IEnumerable<TTarget> ConvertCsvTo<TTarget>(
            string fullFileName,
            char separator,
            Predicate<int> predicateRowCount,
            Func<string[], TTarget> projection,
            Encoding encodingType)
        {
            if (!File.Exists(fullFileName))
            {
                //  TODO: Multilanguage
                throw new FileNotFoundException(String.Format("Die angegebene Datei konnte nicht gefunden werden: {0}", fullFileName), fullFileName);
            }

            var rowCount = 0;

            return from row in File.ReadAllLines(fullFileName, encodingType)
                   where predicateRowCount(rowCount++)
                   let columns = row.Split(separator)
                   select projection(columns);
        }

        #endregion
    }
  }