convert string data array to list

i have an string data array which contains data like this

5~kiran
2~ram
1~arun
6~rohan

now a method returns an value like string [] data

 public string [] names()
    {
        return data.Toarray()
    }

    public class Person 
    { 
        public string Name { get; set; } 
        public int Age { get; set; } 
    }



 List<Person> persons = new List<Person>(); 
    string [] names = names();

now i need to copy all the data from an string array to an list and finally bind to grid view

gridview.datasoutrce= persons

how can i do it. is there any built in method to do it

thanks in advance

prince

Something like this:

var persons = (from n in names()
               let s = n.split('~')
               select new Person { Name=s[1], Age=int.Parse(s[0]) }
              ).ToList();

var persons = names.Select(n => n.Split('~'))
                   .Select(a => new Person { Age=int.Parse(a[0]), Name=a[1] })
                   .ToList();

Assuming that the source data are completely valid (i.e. no negative ages, names do not contain '~', every line has both age and name, and so on), here's a very easy implementation:

List<Person> persons = new List<Person>;

foreach (var s in names()) {
    var split = s.Split('~');
    int age = int.Parse (split[0]);
    string name = split[1];
    var p = new Person() { Age = age, Name = name };
    persons.Add (p);
}

You can also use a Linq query, which is shorter. See Marcelo's Answer for an example.