If you want to read only the header of the file then specify start->0, end->0
null[_String] := Null
countLines = Length@ReadList[#, null@String, NullRecords -> True] &;
ClearAll[readRows];
Options[readRows]={filetype->"CSV",start->0,end->-1, types->{}, import->True, find->"", header->True};
readRows[fname_String?FileExistsQ,OptionsPattern[]]:=Module[
{txtstrm, ftype,typesval,impmethod,
startLine,endLine,line1,str,
hdr, hdrflag, body, bodyImport, blnk},
(* Blank function for skipping word separators, e.g. commas *)
blnk[]=blnk[Character];
blnk[_String]=Sequence[];
(* Get Option Values *)
startLine=OptionValue[start];endLine=OptionValue[end];
ftype=OptionValue[filetype];typesval=OptionValue[types];
impmethod=OptionValue[import];str=OptionValue[find];
hdrflag=OptionValue[header] ;
(* Open Stream *)
txtstrm=OpenRead[fname];
(* Process Header, i.e. first line *)
line1 = ReadList[txtstrm,Record,1][[1]];
Which[
ftype=="CSV", hdr = StringSplit[line1,","],
ftype=="TSV", hdr = StringSplit[line1,"\t"],
True, Abort[] ];
(* If user has not specified any types for ReadLine, types\[Rule]{} *)
If[Length@typesval==0,typesval= Riffle[Table[Word,Length@hdr],blnk[]]];
(* If user has not specified the line to end reading *)
If[endLine==-1,endLine=countLines@fname];
(* If user specified to start reading the text stream from a specific line *)
If [startLine!=0,Skip[txtstrm,Record,startLine]];
(* If user specified a string to find in a file *)
If[str!="",Find[txtstrm,str]];
(* Check the import option for post-processing each row with ImportString *)
If[impmethod,
body =ReadList[txtstrm,Record,endLine-startLine];
bodyImport= ImportString[StringJoin[Riffle[body,"\n"]],ftype,CharacterEncoding->"UTF-8"],
(* else *)
Which[
ftype=="CSV", body =ReadList[txtstrm,typesval,endLine-startLine,WordSeparators->{"\n",","}],
ftype=="TSV", body =ReadList[txtstrm,typesval,endLine-startLine,WordSeparators->{"\n","\t"}] ];
]; (* End of If impmethod *)
(* Close the stream *)
Close[txtstrm];
(* Optionally add the header at the beginning, return the result *)
Which[
startLine==0 && endLine==0, hdr,
impmethod && hdrflag, Prepend[bodyImport, hdr],
impmethod, bodyImport,
hdrflag, Prepend[body, hdr],
True, body]
] (* End of readRows *)
