diff --git a/lib/serialisation/BaseIO.h b/lib/serialisation/BaseIO.h
index b89d27ad..3c49692f 100644
--- a/lib/serialisation/BaseIO.h
+++ b/lib/serialisation/BaseIO.h
@@ -32,6 +32,22 @@ Author: Peter Boyle <paboyle@ph.ed.ac.uk>
 #include <type_traits>
 
 namespace Grid {
+  // helper function to read space-separated values
+  template <typename T>
+  std::vector<T> strToVec(const std::string s)
+  {
+    std::istringstream sstr(s);
+    T                  buf;
+    std::vector<T>     v;
+    
+    while(!sstr.eof())
+    {
+      sstr >> buf;
+      v.push_back(buf);
+    }
+    
+    return v;
+  }
   
   class Serializable {};
   
diff --git a/tests/Test_serialisation.cc b/tests/Test_serialisation.cc
index 22bb7025..42fdcccb 100644
--- a/tests/Test_serialisation.cc
+++ b/tests/Test_serialisation.cc
@@ -140,4 +140,18 @@ int main(int argc,char **argv)
     std::cout << "Loaded (txt) -----------------" << std::endl;
     std::cout << copy3 << std::endl << veccopy3 << std::endl;
   }
+  
+  std::vector<int> iv = strToVec<int>("1 2 2 4");
+  std::vector<std::string> sv = strToVec<std::string>("bli bla blu");
+  
+  for (auto &e: iv)
+  {
+    std::cout << e << " ";
+  }
+  std::cout << std::endl;
+  for (auto &e: sv)
+  {
+    std::cout << e << " ";
+  }
+  std::cout << std::endl;
 }