diff --git a/bacnet-stack/bacstr.c b/bacnet-stack/bacstr.c
index 01ebdbd6..81da5481 100644
--- a/bacnet-stack/bacstr.c
+++ b/bacnet-stack/bacstr.c
@@ -360,6 +360,15 @@ bool octetstring_init(
   return status;
 }
 
+bool octetstring_copy(
+  BACNET_OCTET_STRING *octet_string_dest,
+  BACNET_OCTET_STRING *octet_string_src)
+{
+  return octetstring_init(octet_string_dest,
+    octetstring_value(octet_string_src),
+    octetstring_length(octet_string_src));
+}
+
 /* returns false if the string exceeds capacity */
 bool octetstring_append(
     BACNET_OCTET_STRING *octet_string,
diff --git a/bacnet-stack/bacstr.h b/bacnet-stack/bacstr.h
index 5ccd876d..0bb2ae37 100644
--- a/bacnet-stack/bacstr.h
+++ b/bacnet-stack/bacstr.h
@@ -126,6 +126,9 @@ bool octetstring_init(
   BACNET_OCTET_STRING *octet_string,
   uint8_t *value,
   size_t length);
+bool octetstring_copy(
+  BACNET_OCTET_STRING *octet_string_dest,
+  BACNET_OCTET_STRING *octet_string_src);
 /* returns false if the string exceeds capacity */
 bool octetstring_append(
     BACNET_OCTET_STRING *octet_string,