diff --git a/utils.lua b/utils.lua
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..98573fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utils.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+local M = {}
+
+M.iter_table_dump = function ( arr )
+  for k, v in pairs(arr) do
+    print("Table:", k, v)
+  end
+end
+
+local escape_chars = function ( text )
+  return string.gsub(text, "[%(|%)|\\|%[|%]|%-|%{%}|%?|%+|%*|%^|%$|%.]", {
+    ["\\"] = "\\\\",
+    ["-"] = "\\-",
+    ["("] = "\\(",
+    [")"] = "\\)",
+    ["["] = "\\[",
+    ["]"] = "\\]",
+    ["{"] = "\\{",
+    ["}"] = "\\}",
+    ["?"] = "\\?",
+    ["+"] = "\\+",
+    ["*"] = "\\*",
+    ["^"] = "\\^",
+    ["$"] = "\\$",
+    ["."] = "\\.",
+  })
+end
+
+-- :@dev: clean the text once it has been fetched from buffer
+M.clean_buf = function ( text )
+  if not type(text) == "string" or text == nil then
+    print("[DEBUG - clean_buf]  Given input is not of type string.")
+    return
+  end
+
+  return escape_chars( text )
+    :match( "^%s*(.-)%s*$" )
+end
+
+
+return M