diff --git a/src/de/unibremen/informatik/hets/common/lang/StringUtils.java b/src/de/unibremen/informatik/hets/common/lang/StringUtils.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ccff7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/de/unibremen/informatik/hets/common/lang/StringUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package de.unibremen.informatik.hets.common.lang;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.StringReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException;
+
+public class StringUtils {
+    static {
+    }
+
+    public StringUtils() {
+        super();
+    }
+
+    /*
+     * return from line fromline, column fromcolumn until line toline, column
+     * tocolumn
+     */
+    public static String getSlice(String str, int fromline, int fromcolumn, int toline, int tocolumn) throws IOException {
+        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new StringReader(str));
+        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
+
+        // seek to fromline
+        for (int i = 0; i < fromline-1; i++) {
+            reader.readLine();
+        }
+
+        String cur = reader.readLine();
+        if (cur == null) {
+            throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException();
+        }
+
+        if (fromline == toline) {
+            builder.append(cur.substring(fromcolumn-1, tocolumn-1));
+        } else {
+            builder.append(cur.substring(fromcolumn-1));
+            builder.append("\n");
+
+            // append lines until toline
+            for (int i = fromline-1; i < toline-2; i++) {
+                cur = reader.readLine();
+                if (cur == null) {
+                    throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException();
+                }
+                builder.append(cur);
+                builder.append("\n");
+            }
+
+            cur = reader.readLine();
+            if (cur == null) {
+                throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException();
+            }
+            builder.append(cur.substring(0, tocolumn-1));
+        }
+
+        return builder.toString();
+    }
+}