diff --git a/libr/include/sdb/sdb.h b/libr/include/sdb/sdb.h
index a1a25f1029ae2..3de4aa5961574 100644
--- a/libr/include/sdb/sdb.h
+++ b/libr/include/sdb/sdb.h
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ extern "C" {
 #include "cdb_make.h"
 #include "sdb-version.h"
 
+#undef R_MAX
+#define R_MAX(x,y) (((x)>(y))?(x):(y))
+#undef r_offsetof
+#define r_offsetof(type, member) ((unsigned long) &((type*)0)->member)
+
 //#define SDB_RS '\x1e'
 #define SDB_RS ','
 #define SDB_SS ","
@@ -194,9 +199,15 @@ int sdb_bool_get(Sdb *db, const char *str, ut32 *cas);
 
 // base64
 ut8 *sdb_decode (const char *in, int *len);
-SDB_API char *sdb_encode(const ut8 *bin, int len);
-SDB_API void sdb_encode_raw(char *bout, const ut8 *bin, int len);
-SDB_API int sdb_decode_raw(ut8 *bout, const char *bin, int len);
+char *sdb_encode(const ut8 *bin, int len);
+void sdb_encode_raw(char *bout, const ut8 *bin, int len);
+int sdb_decode_raw(ut8 *bout, const char *bin, int len);
+
+// binfmt
+int sdb_fmt_init (void *p, const char *fmt);
+void sdb_fmt_free (void *p, const char *fmt);
+int sdb_fmt_tobin(const char *_str, const char *fmt, void *stru);
+char *sdb_fmt_tostr(void *stru, const char *fmt);
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
diff --git a/shlr/sdb/config.mk b/shlr/sdb/config.mk
index f22fbb7e6aee7..89673698206df 100644
--- a/shlr/sdb/config.mk
+++ b/shlr/sdb/config.mk
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ CFLAGS+=$(shell gcc -v 2>&1 | grep -q LLVM && echo '-Wno-initializer-overrides')
 CFLAGS+=-Wall
 #CFLAGS+=-O3
 #CFLAGS+=-ggdb -g -Wall -O0
+CFLAGS+=-g
 
 HAVE_VALA=#$(shell valac --version 2> /dev/null)
 # This is hacky
diff --git a/shlr/sdb/src/Makefile b/shlr/sdb/src/Makefile
index 694b7b2a7a43a..81a3c7cd6d3d1 100644
--- a/shlr/sdb/src/Makefile
+++ b/shlr/sdb/src/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ include ../config.mk
 
 CFLAGS+= -g -ggdb
 OBJ=cdb.o buffer.o cdb_make.o ls.o ht.o sdb.o num.o base64.o
-OBJ+=json.o ns.o lock.o util.o disk.o query.o array.o
+OBJ+=json.o ns.o lock.o util.o disk.o query.o array.o fmt.o
 
 SOBJ=$(subst .o,._o,${OBJ})
 
diff --git a/shlr/sdb/src/array.c b/shlr/sdb/src/array.c
index f6f0878b8112f..ae0f52bf3ccc8 100644
--- a/shlr/sdb/src/array.c
+++ b/shlr/sdb/src/array.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ SDB_API const char *sdb_array_next(const char *str) {
 	return str+strlen (str)+1;
 }
 
+// TODO: nxt can be a pointer to the string, not a bool and we can get ird of array_next()
 SDB_API char *sdb_array_string(char *str, int *hasnext) {
 	int nxt = 0;
 	char *p = strchr (str, SDB_RS);
diff --git a/shlr/sdb/src/base64.c b/shlr/sdb/src/base64.c
index b8e6dfde46b36..0ec69c860aef7 100644
--- a/shlr/sdb/src/base64.c
+++ b/shlr/sdb/src/base64.c
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ SDB_API char *sdb_encode(const ut8 *bin, int len) {
 		len = strlen ((const char *)bin)+1;
 	if (len==0)
 		return strdup ("");
-	out = malloc (len+8);
+	out = malloc (len*2);
 	if (!out)
 		return NULL;
 	memset (out, 0, len+8);
@@ -70,7 +70,9 @@ SDB_API char *sdb_encode(const ut8 *bin, int len) {
 SDB_API ut8 *sdb_decode (const char *in, int *len) {
 	ut8 *out;
 	int olen, ilen = strlen (in);
-	out = malloc (ilen+8);
+	if (ilen<1)
+		return NULL;
+	out = malloc (ilen*2);
 	if (!out)
 		return NULL;
 	memset (out, 0, ilen+8);
diff --git a/shlr/sdb/src/fmt.c b/shlr/sdb/src/fmt.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..85e2aca8f5639
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shlr/sdb/src/fmt.c
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+/* sdb - LGPLv3 - Copyright 2014 - pancake */
+
+#include "sdb.h"
+
+// SLOW CONCAT
+#define out_concat(x) if (x) { \
+	char *o =(void*)realloc((void*)out, 2+strlen(x)+(out?strlen(out):0)); \
+	if (o) { if (*o) strcat (o, ","); out=o; strcat (o, x); } \
+}
+
+SDB_API char *sdb_fmt_tostr(void *stru, const char *fmt) {
+	const char *num;
+	char *out = NULL;
+	ut8 *p = stru;
+	char buf[128];
+	int n, len = 0;
+
+	for (; *fmt; fmt++) {
+		n = 4;
+		switch (*fmt) {
+		case 'b':
+			num = sdb_itoa ((ut64)*((ut8*)(p+len)), buf, 10);
+			out_concat (num);
+			break;
+		case 'h': 
+			num = sdb_itoa ((ut64)*((short*)(p+len)), buf, 10);
+			out_concat (num);
+			break;
+		case 'd':
+			num = sdb_itoa ((ut64)*((int*)(p+len)), buf, 10);
+			out_concat (num);
+			break;
+		case 'q':
+			num = sdb_itoa (*((ut64*)(p+len)), buf, 10);
+			out_concat (num);
+			n = 8;
+			break;
+		case 's':
+			{
+			char *e_str = sdb_encode ((const ut8*)*((char**)(p+len)), 0);
+			out_concat (e_str);
+			free (e_str);
+			}
+			break;
+		case 'p':
+			num = sdb_itoa ((ut64)*((size_t*)(p+len)), buf, 16);
+			out_concat (num);
+			n = sizeof (size_t);
+			break;
+		}
+		len += R_MAX (sizeof (void*), n); // align
+	}
+	return out;
+}
+
+// TODO: return false if array length != fmt length
+SDB_API int sdb_fmt_tobin(const char *_str, const char *fmt, void *stru) {
+	int nxt, n, idx = 0;
+	char *str, *ptr, *word;
+	str = ptr = strdup (_str);
+	for (; *fmt; fmt++) {
+		word = sdb_array_string (ptr, &nxt);
+		if (!word || !*word)
+			break;
+		n = 4; // ALIGN
+		switch (*fmt) {
+		case 'q': *((ut64*)(stru + idx)) = sdb_atoi (word); n=8; break;
+		case 'h': *((short*)(stru + idx)) = (short)sdb_atoi (word); break;
+		case 'd': *((int*)(stru + idx)) = (int)sdb_atoi (word); break;
+		case 's':
+			{
+			ut8 *e_str = sdb_decode (word, 0);
+			if (!e_str) e_str = (ut8*)word;
+			*((char**)(stru + idx)) = (char*)e_str;
+			}
+			break;
+		case 'p': *((void**)(stru + idx)) = (void*)(size_t)sdb_atoi (word);
+			break;
+		default: eprintf ("WTF\n"); break;
+		}
+		idx += R_MAX(sizeof (void*), n); // align
+		if (!nxt)
+			break;
+		ptr = (char*)sdb_array_next (word);
+	}
+	return 1;
+}
+
+SDB_API void sdb_fmt_free (void *p, const char *fmt) {
+	// TODO: free() 's' and memset the rest
+}
+
+SDB_API int sdb_fmt_init (void *p, const char *fmt) {
+	int len = 0;
+	for (; *fmt; fmt++) {
+		switch (*fmt) {
+		case 'b': len += sizeof (ut8); break;   // 1
+		case 'h': len += sizeof (short); break; // 2
+		case 'd': len += sizeof (ut32); break;  // 4
+		case 'q': len += sizeof (ut64); break;  // 8
+		case 's': len += sizeof (char*); break; // void*
+		case 'p': len += sizeof (char*); break; // void *
+		}
+	}
+	if (p) memset (p, 0, len);
+	return len;
+}
+
+
+#if 0
+main() {
+	#define STRUCT_PERSON_FORMAT "ds"
+	#define STRUCT_PERSON_SIZE sizeof (struct Person)
+	typedef struct person {
+		int foo;
+		char *str;
+		ut64 fin;
+		int end;
+	} Person;
+
+	Person p;
+
+	sdb_fmt_init (&p, "dsqd");
+	sdb_fmt_tobin ("123,bar,321,1", "dsqd", &p);
+	eprintf ("--> %d,%s\n", p.foo, p.str);
+	eprintf ("--> %lld,%d\n", p.fin, p.end);
+
+	{
+		char *o = sdb_fmt_tostr (&p, "dsqd");
+		eprintf ("== %s\n", o);
+		free (o);
+	}
+	sdb_fmt_free (&p, "ds");
+}
+#endif
diff --git a/shlr/sdb/src/sdb.h b/shlr/sdb/src/sdb.h
index a1a25f1029ae2..3de4aa5961574 100644
--- a/shlr/sdb/src/sdb.h
+++ b/shlr/sdb/src/sdb.h
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ extern "C" {
 #include "cdb_make.h"
 #include "sdb-version.h"
 
+#undef R_MAX
+#define R_MAX(x,y) (((x)>(y))?(x):(y))
+#undef r_offsetof
+#define r_offsetof(type, member) ((unsigned long) &((type*)0)->member)
+
 //#define SDB_RS '\x1e'
 #define SDB_RS ','
 #define SDB_SS ","
@@ -194,9 +199,15 @@ int sdb_bool_get(Sdb *db, const char *str, ut32 *cas);
 
 // base64
 ut8 *sdb_decode (const char *in, int *len);
-SDB_API char *sdb_encode(const ut8 *bin, int len);
-SDB_API void sdb_encode_raw(char *bout, const ut8 *bin, int len);
-SDB_API int sdb_decode_raw(ut8 *bout, const char *bin, int len);
+char *sdb_encode(const ut8 *bin, int len);
+void sdb_encode_raw(char *bout, const ut8 *bin, int len);
+int sdb_decode_raw(ut8 *bout, const char *bin, int len);
+
+// binfmt
+int sdb_fmt_init (void *p, const char *fmt);
+void sdb_fmt_free (void *p, const char *fmt);
+int sdb_fmt_tobin(const char *_str, const char *fmt, void *stru);
+char *sdb_fmt_tostr(void *stru, const char *fmt);
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
diff --git a/shlr/sdb/src/util.c b/shlr/sdb/src/util.c
index 53a5cc103bbf6..24358a1e686ba 100644
--- a/shlr/sdb/src/util.c
+++ b/shlr/sdb/src/util.c
@@ -18,22 +18,12 @@ SDB_API int sdb_check_value(const char *s) {
 }
 
 SDB_API int sdb_check_key(const char *s) {
+	const char *special_chars = "\"+-=[]:$;";
 	if (!s || !*s)
 		return 0;
-	for (; *s; s++) {
-		switch (*s) {
-		case '"':
-		case '+':
-		case '-':
-		case '=':
-		case '[':
-		case ']':
-		case ':':
-		case '$': // eval value of given key
-		case ';':
+	for (; *s; s++)
+		if (strchr (special_chars, *s))
 			return 0;
-		}
-	}
 	return 1;
 }
 
@@ -41,39 +31,33 @@ SDB_API int sdb_check_key(const char *s) {
 SDB_API ut32 sdb_hash(const char *s, int len) {
 	ut32 h = CDB_HASHSTART;
 	if (len<1) {
-		while (*s) {
-			h += (h<<5);
-			h ^= *s++;
-		}
+		while (*s)
+			h = (h+(h<<5))^*s++;
 	} else {
-		while (len--) {
-			h += (h<<5);
-			h ^= *s++;
-		}
+		while (len--)
+			h = (h+(h<<5))^*s++;
 	}
 	return h;
 }
 
+// assert (sizeof (s)>64)
 SDB_API char *sdb_itoa(ut64 n, char *s, int base) {
+	static const char* lookup = "0123456789abcdef";
 	int i = 62;
 	if (!s) {
 		s = malloc (64);
+		if (!s) return NULL;
 		memset (s, 0, 64);
 	}
 	s[63] = '\0';
 	if (base==16) {
-		static const char* lookup = "0123456789abcdef";
-		do {
+		for (; n && i>0; n/=16)
 			s[i--] = lookup[(n % 16)];
-			if (i==0) break;
-		} while(n/=16); 
 		s[i--] = 'x';
 		s[i--] = '0';
 	} else {
-		do {
+		for (; n && i>0; n/=10)
 			s[i--] = (n % 10) + '0';
-			if (i==0) break;
-		} while (n/=10); 
 	}
 	return s+i+1;
 }
@@ -102,19 +86,21 @@ SDB_API int sdb_alen(const char *str) {
 }
 
 SDB_API ut64 sdb_now () {
-        struct timeval now;
-        gettimeofday (&now, NULL);
-	return now.tv_sec;
+	struct timeval now;
+	if (!gettimeofday (&now, NULL))
+		return now.tv_sec;
+	return 0LL;
 }
 
 SDB_API ut64 sdb_unow () {
 	ut64 x;
         struct timeval now;
-        gettimeofday (&now, NULL);
-	x = now.tv_sec;
-	x <<= 32;
-	x += now.tv_usec;
-        return x;
+        if (!gettimeofday (&now, NULL)) {
+		x = now.tv_sec;
+		x <<= 32;
+		x += now.tv_usec;
+	} else x = 0LL;
+	return x;
 }
 
 SDB_API int sdb_isnum (const char *s) {