diff --git a/lib/assets/Lib/_string.py b/lib/assets/Lib/_string.py
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/assets/Lib/_string.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+"""string helper module"""
+
+import re
+
+class __loader__(object):
+    pass
+
+def formatter_field_name_split(fieldname):
+    """split the argument as a field name"""
+    _list=[]
+    for _name in fieldname:
+        _parts = _name.split('.')
+        for _item in _parts:
+            is_attr=False  #fix me
+            if re.match('\d+', _item):
+               _list.append((int(_item), is_attr))
+            else:
+               _list.append((_item, is_attr))
+
+    return _list[0][0], iter(_list[1:])
+
+def formatter_parser(*args,**kw):
+    """parse the argument as a format string"""
+
+    assert len(args)==1
+    assert isinstance(args[0], str)
+
+    _result=[]
+    for _match in re.finditer("([^{]*)?(\{[^}]*\})?", args[0]):
+        _pre, _fmt = _match.groups()
+        if _fmt is None:
+           _result.append((_pre, None, None, None))
+        elif _fmt == '{}':
+           _result.append((_pre, '', '', None))
+        else:
+           _m=re.match("\{([^!]*)!?(.*)?\}", _fmt)
+           _name=_m.groups(0)
+           _flags=_m.groups(1)
+
+           _result.append((_pre, _name, _flags, None))
+
+    return _result