diff --git a/src/utility/zstring.cpp b/src/utility/zstring.cpp
index 0eb8fe67d..0e2720da2 100644
--- a/src/utility/zstring.cpp
+++ b/src/utility/zstring.cpp
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 #include <new>		// for bad_alloc
 
 #include "zstring.h"
+#include "v_text.h"
 
 FNullStringData FString::NullString =
 {
@@ -379,6 +380,25 @@ FString &FString::CopyCStrPart(const char *tail, size_t tailLen)
 	return *this;
 }
 
+size_t FString::CharacterCount() const
+{
+	// Counts string length in Unicode code points.
+	size_t len = 0;
+	const uint8_t *cp = (const uint8_t*)Chars;
+	while (GetCharFromString(cp)) len++;
+	return len;
+}
+
+
+int FString::GetNextCharacter(int &position) const
+{
+	const uint8_t *cp = (const uint8_t*)Chars;
+	const uint8_t *cpread = cp + position;
+	int chr = GetCharFromString(cpread);
+	position += int(cpread - cp);
+	return chr;
+}
+
 void FString::Truncate(size_t newlen)
 {
 	if (newlen == 0)
diff --git a/src/utility/zstring.h b/src/utility/zstring.h
index 2924de96d..2ef4ff196 100644
--- a/src/utility/zstring.h
+++ b/src/utility/zstring.h
@@ -304,6 +304,8 @@ public:
 	double ToDouble () const;
 
 	size_t Len() const { return Data()->Len; }
+	size_t CharacterCount() const;
+	int GetNextCharacter(int &position) const;
 	bool IsEmpty() const { return Len() == 0; }
 	bool IsNotEmpty() const { return Len() != 0; }