diff --git a/sstables/sstables.cc b/sstables/sstables.cc
index b58f5ab246..9589a69784 100644
--- a/sstables/sstables.cc
+++ b/sstables/sstables.cc
@@ -1389,6 +1389,10 @@ sstable::format_types sstable::format_from_sstring(sstring &s) {
     return reverse_map(s, _format_string);
 }
 
+sstable::component_type sstable::component_from_sstring(sstring &s) {
+    return reverse_map(s, _component_map);
+}
+
 input_stream<char> sstable::data_stream_at(uint64_t pos) {
     if (_compression) {
         return make_compressed_file_input_stream(
diff --git a/sstables/sstables.hh b/sstables/sstables.hh
index 4555c43746..985835ce71 100644
--- a/sstables/sstables.hh
+++ b/sstables/sstables.hh
@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@ public:
     // Like data_consume_rows() with bounds, but iterates over whole range
     data_consume_context data_consume_rows(row_consumer& consumer);
 
+    static component_type component_from_sstring(sstring& s);
     static version_types version_from_sstring(sstring& s);
     static format_types format_from_sstring(sstring& s);
     static const sstring filename(sstring dir, version_types version, unsigned long generation,