Best way to input data

I was hoping I could get some advice on the best interface for loading up my tables. To populate the different tables from the initial files, I am going to be running a lot of different processing steps in between as I populate individual records. To integrate this all I was wondering what the best interface to the postgres database would be? It seems from the manual online that the embedded C API would work well for starters, but maybe my time would be better spent learning something that will be quicker in the long run?

Thanks,
Morgan