diff --git a/pyavrophonetic/utils/validate.py b/pyavrophonetic/utils/validate.py
index 0b74d4b..6c88d90 100755
--- a/pyavrophonetic/utils/validate.py
+++ b/pyavrophonetic/utils/validate.py
@@ -66,6 +66,11 @@ def is_case_sensitive(text):
     else:
         return False
 
+def is_exact(needle, haystack, start, end, matchnot):
+    """Check exact occurrence of needle in haystack"""
+    return (start >= 0 and end < len(haystack) and
+            (haystack[start:end] == needle) ^ matchnot)
+
 def fix_string_case(text):
     """Converts case-insensitive characters to lower case
 
diff --git a/tests/test_utils_validate.py b/tests/test_utils_validate.py
index 82ecc4f..24916ab 100755
--- a/tests/test_utils_validate.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils_validate.py
@@ -100,3 +100,10 @@ def test_fix_string_case(self):
         # 'raMgoRurer Chana' should become 'ramgoRurer chana'
         self.assertEquals(validate.fix_string_case('raMgoRurer Chana'),
                           'ramgoRurer chana')
+
+    def test_is_exact(self):
+        """Test exact search response of needle in haystack"""
+        self.assertTrue(validate.is_exact('abcd', 'abcdefgh', 0, 4, False))
+        self.assertFalse(validate.is_exact('abcd', 'abcdefgh', 0, 4, True))
+        self.assertFalse(validate.is_exact('bcd', 'abcdefgh', 0, 4, False))
+        self.assertTrue(validate.is_exact('bcd', 'abcdefgh', 0, 4, True))