diff --git a/examples/util.c b/examples/util.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69fc8a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/util.c
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/** 
+ * \file util.c
+ * A set of common utility functions found
+ * in all samples.
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2008 Linus Walleij <triad@df.lth.se>
+ *
+ * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
+ * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
+ * version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+ * Lesser General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
+ * License along with this library; if not, write to the
+ * Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
+ * Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+ */
+#include "util.h"
+#ifdef HAVE_LANGINFO_H
+#include <langinfo.h>
+#endif
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <string.h>
+
+void checklang(void)
+{
+  char *langsuff = NULL;
+  char *lang = getenv("LANG");
+
+#ifdef HAVE_LANGINFO_H
+  langsuff = nl_langinfo(CODESET);
+#else
+  /*
+   * Check environment variables $LANG and $LC_CTYPE
+   * to see if we want to support UTF-8 unicode
+   */
+  if (lang != NULL) {
+    if (strlen(lang) > 5) {
+      langsuff = &lang[strlen(lang)-5];
+    }
+  }
+#endif
+  if (strcmp(langsuff, "UTF-8")) {
+    printf("Your system does not appear to have UTF-8 enabled ($LANG=\"%s\")\n", lang);
+    printf("If you want to have support for diacritics and Unicode characters,\n");
+    printf("please switch your locale to an UTF-8 locale, e.g. \"en_US.UTF-8\".\n");
+  }
+}