Looking for easy csv -> database

[Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@stanfordalumni.org>]

Does Debian have any database-like tool that could easily create a
database from a CSV (plain text with delimeters) file?

I've looked at gaby and the gnome-db front end tool, but didn't get
very far with either.

This is inspired by taxes.  Here's what I've done in the past with MS
software:
dump my expenses to a CSV file
add a field or two for me to make additional categorizations
get totals by field

There were actually two ways to do this.  I could do it in excel, and
then use data reduction/cross-tab functions.  Or I could import into
access (database) and then get subtotals.

Neither route worked for me in Linux (I'm running testing). 

Spreadsheets: Neither KSpread nor gnumeric seems to have any cross tab
facility (though I kind of suspect it might be programmable).
Additionally, gnumeric refused to import the data, complaining about
an invalid character (it's actually from an old DOS program).

Databases: as I said, I didn't get very far.  I have the sneeking
suspicion gaby doesn't import from the rest of the world.  Further,
every time I've tried gaby in the past, its meager documentation and
apparent bugginess have stymied me (though it seems to be in a much
higher version number now).  The gnome-db architecture looks as if it
should, in principle, be able to take a plain text file as a data
source, but I had no luck hooking this up.  I also wonder any of the
tools well extract the schema from the CSV file (column headers), or
whether they all want me to define it in advance.

I'm not sure if the problem here is the capabilities of the software,
or my understanding of it.  I'd appreciate any guidance.

Here's what I've got for gda:
pn  gda-mysql              <none>                 (no description available)
pn  gda-odbc               <none>                 (no description available)
pn  gda-postgres           <none>                 (no description available)
un  gnumeric-gda           <none>                 (no description available)
un  libgda-bin             <none>                 (no description available)
ii  libgda-common          0.2.96-4               GNU Data Access library -- common files.
un  libgda-data            <none>                 (no description available)
ii  libgda-dev             0.2.96-4               GNU Data Access library -- development files
ii  libgda-doc             0.2.96-4               GNU Data Access library -- documentation files
ii  libgda0                0.2.96-4               GNU Data Access library -- runtime libraries