diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index a34c5c3..c0d3e2b 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
+#![feature(const_generics)]
+
 pub mod crypto;
 pub mod packet;
 pub mod character;
+pub mod util;
 
 use std::io::Read;
 #[derive(Debug, PartialEq)]
diff --git a/src/util.rs b/src/util.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..884ab1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/util.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+
+pub fn array_to_utf8<const X: usize>(array: [u8; X]) -> Result<String, std::string::FromUtf8Error> {
+    String::from_utf8(array.to_vec())
+        .map(|mut s| {
+            if let Some(index) = s.find("\u{0}") {
+                s.truncate(index);
+            }
+            s
+        })
+}
+
+
+// TODO: const fn version of this! (helpful with tests)
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! utf8_to_array {
+    ($s: expr, $size: expr) => {
+        {
+            let mut array = [0u8; $size];
+            let bytes = $s.as_bytes();
+            array[..bytes.len()].clone_from_slice(&bytes);
+            array
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! utf8_to_utf16_array {
+    ($s: expr, $size: expr) => {
+        {
+            let mut array = [0u16; $size];
+            //let bytes = $s.as_bytes();
+            let bytes = $s.encode_utf16().collect::<Vec<_>>();
+            array[..bytes.len()].clone_from_slice(&bytes);
+            array
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod test {
+    #[test]
+    fn test_utf8_to_array() {
+        let s = "asdf".to_owned();
+        let a = utf8_to_array!(s, 8);
+
+        let mut e = [0u8; 8];
+        e[..4].clone_from_slice(b"asdf");
+        assert!(a == e);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn utf8_to_utf16_array() {
+        let utf16 = utf8_to_utf16_array!("asdf", 16);
+        assert!(utf16 == [97, 115, 100, 102, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0])
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn utf8_to_utf16_array_unicode() {
+        let utf16 = utf8_to_utf16_array!("あいうえお", 16);
+        assert!(utf16 == [0x3042 , 0x3044, 0x3046, 0x3048, 0x304A, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0])
+    }
+}