diff --git a/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/Snappy.java b/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/Snappy.java
index 103553f..33744ec 100755
--- a/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/Snappy.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/Snappy.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 //--------------------------------------
 package org.xerial.snappy;
 
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 
 /**
@@ -87,6 +88,20 @@ public class Snappy
         return rawCompress(input, input.length * 8); // double use 8 bytes
     }
 
+    public static byte[] compress(String s, String encoding) throws UnsupportedEncodingException, SnappyException {
+        byte[] data = s.getBytes(encoding);
+        return compress(data);
+    }
+
+    public static byte[] compress(String s) throws SnappyException {
+        try {
+            return compress(s, "UTF-8");
+        }
+        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
+            throw new IllegalStateException("UTF-8 encoder is not found");
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Compress the input data and produce an output array
      * 
@@ -120,7 +135,7 @@ public class Snappy
         return result;
     }
 
-    public static short[] uncompressShort(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
+    public static short[] uncompressShortArray(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
         int uncompressedLength = Snappy.uncompressedLength(input, 0, input.length);
         short[] result = new short[uncompressedLength / 2];
         int byteSize = SnappyNative.rawUncompress(input, 0, input.length, result, 0);
@@ -129,7 +144,7 @@ public class Snappy
         return result;
     }
 
-    public static char[] uncompressChar(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
+    public static char[] uncompressCharArray(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
         int uncompressedLength = Snappy.uncompressedLength(input, 0, input.length);
         char[] result = new char[uncompressedLength / 2];
         int byteSize = SnappyNative.rawUncompress(input, 0, input.length, result, 0);
@@ -138,7 +153,7 @@ public class Snappy
         return result;
     }
 
-    public static int[] uncompressInt(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
+    public static int[] uncompressIntArray(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
         int uncompressedLength = Snappy.uncompressedLength(input, 0, input.length);
         int[] result = new int[uncompressedLength / 4];
         int byteSize = SnappyNative.rawUncompress(input, 0, input.length, result, 0);
@@ -147,7 +162,7 @@ public class Snappy
         return result;
     }
 
-    public static float[] uncompressFloat(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
+    public static float[] uncompressFloatArray(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
         int uncompressedLength = Snappy.uncompressedLength(input, 0, input.length);
         float[] result = new float[uncompressedLength / 4];
         int byteSize = SnappyNative.rawUncompress(input, 0, input.length, result, 0);
@@ -156,7 +171,7 @@ public class Snappy
         return result;
     }
 
-    public static long[] uncompressLong(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
+    public static long[] uncompressLongArray(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
         int uncompressedLength = Snappy.uncompressedLength(input, 0, input.length);
         long[] result = new long[uncompressedLength / 8];
         int byteSize = SnappyNative.rawUncompress(input, 0, input.length, result, 0);
@@ -165,7 +180,7 @@ public class Snappy
         return result;
     }
 
-    public static double[] uncompressDouble(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
+    public static double[] uncompressDoubleArray(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
         int uncompressedLength = Snappy.uncompressedLength(input, 0, input.length);
         double[] result = new double[uncompressedLength / 8];
         int byteSize = SnappyNative.rawUncompress(input, 0, input.length, result, 0);
@@ -174,6 +189,21 @@ public class Snappy
         return result;
     }
 
+    public static String uncompressString(byte[] input, String encoding) throws SnappyException,
+            UnsupportedEncodingException {
+        byte[] uncompressed = uncompress(input);
+        return new String(uncompressed, encoding);
+    }
+
+    public static String uncompressString(byte[] input) throws SnappyException {
+        try {
+            return uncompressString(input, "UTF-8");
+        }
+        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
+            throw new IllegalStateException("UTF-8 decoder is not found");
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Compress the content in the given input buffer. After the compression,
      * you can retrieve the compressed data from the output buffer [pos() ...
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/xerial/snappy/SnappyTest.java b/src/test/java/org/xerial/snappy/SnappyTest.java
index e1c7327..bb4f146 100755
--- a/src/test/java/org/xerial/snappy/SnappyTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/xerial/snappy/SnappyTest.java
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ public class SnappyTest
     public void floatArray() throws Exception {
         float[] data = new float[] { 1.0f, -0.3f, 1.3f, 234.4f, 34 };
         byte[] compressed = Snappy.compress(data);
-        float[] result = Snappy.uncompressFloat(compressed);
+        float[] result = Snappy.uncompressFloatArray(compressed);
         assertArrayEquals(data, result, 0.0f);
     }
 
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ public class SnappyTest
     public void doubleArray() throws Exception {
         double[] data = new double[] { 1.0, -0.3, 1.3, 234.4, 34 };
         byte[] compressed = Snappy.compress(data);
-        double[] result = Snappy.uncompressDouble(compressed);
+        double[] result = Snappy.uncompressDoubleArray(compressed);
         assertArrayEquals(data, result, 0.0f);
     }
 
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ public class SnappyTest
     public void longArray() throws Exception {
         long[] data = new long[] { 2, 3, 15, 4234, 43251531412342342L, 23423422342L };
         byte[] compressed = Snappy.compress(data);
-        long[] result = Snappy.uncompressLong(compressed);
+        long[] result = Snappy.uncompressLongArray(compressed);
         assertArrayEquals(data, result);
     }
 
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ public class SnappyTest
     public void shortArray() throws Exception {
         short[] data = new short[] { 432, -32267, 1, 3, 34, 43, 34, Short.MAX_VALUE, -1 };
         byte[] compressed = Snappy.compress(data);
-        short[] result = Snappy.uncompressShort(compressed);
+        short[] result = Snappy.uncompressShortArray(compressed);
         assertArrayEquals(data, result);
     }
 
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ public class SnappyTest
     public void intArray() throws Exception {
         int[] data = new int[] { 432, -32267, 1, 3, 34, 43, 34, Short.MAX_VALUE, -1, Integer.MAX_VALUE, 3424, 43 };
         byte[] compressed = Snappy.compress(data);
-        int[] result = Snappy.uncompressInt(compressed);
+        int[] result = Snappy.uncompressIntArray(compressed);
         assertArrayEquals(data, result);
     }
 
@@ -270,8 +270,16 @@ public class SnappyTest
     public void charArray() throws Exception {
         char[] data = new char[] { 'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', ' ', 'W', 'o', 'r', 'l', 'd', '!' };
         byte[] compressed = Snappy.compress(data);
-        char[] result = Snappy.uncompressChar(compressed);
+        char[] result = Snappy.uncompressCharArray(compressed);
         assertArrayEquals(data, result);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void string() throws Exception {
+        String s = "Hello Snappy! Snappy! Snappy!";
+        byte[] compressed = Snappy.compress(s);
+        String uncompressedString = Snappy.uncompressString(compressed);
+        assertEquals(s, uncompressedString);
+    }
+
 }