diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/poi/util/HexRead.java b/src/java/org/apache/poi/util/HexRead.java
index 734a70622..bb141b57e 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/poi/util/HexRead.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/poi/util/HexRead.java
@@ -54,10 +54,7 @@
 
 package org.apache.poi.util;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileInputStream;
-import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.*;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 
@@ -207,6 +204,11 @@ public class HexRead
         return rval;
     }
 
+    static public byte[] readFromString(String data) throws IOException
+    {
+        return readData(new ByteArrayInputStream( data.getBytes() ), -1);
+    }
+
     static private void readToEOL( InputStream stream ) throws IOException
     {
         int c = stream.read();