diff --git a/src/applications/flag/query/flag/PhabricatorFlagQuery.php b/src/applications/flag/query/flag/PhabricatorFlagQuery.php
index e952ec9352..78c6aa6b0c 100644
--- a/src/applications/flag/query/flag/PhabricatorFlagQuery.php
+++ b/src/applications/flag/query/flag/PhabricatorFlagQuery.php
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ final class PhabricatorFlagQuery {
     return id(new PhabricatorFlag())->loadOneWhere(
       'ownerPHID = %s AND type = %s AND objectPHID = %s',
       $user->getPHID(),
-      PhabricatorObjectHandleData::lookupType($object_phid),
+      phid_get_type($object_phid),
       $object_phid);
   }
 
diff --git a/src/applications/flag/query/flag/__init__.php b/src/applications/flag/query/flag/__init__.php
index 30e59cd290..82541230a2 100644
--- a/src/applications/flag/query/flag/__init__.php
+++ b/src/applications/flag/query/flag/__init__.php
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/flag/storage/flag');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/phid/handle/data');
+phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/phid/utils');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'storage/qsprintf');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'storage/queryfx');
 
diff --git a/src/applications/phid/handle/data/PhabricatorObjectHandleData.php b/src/applications/phid/handle/data/PhabricatorObjectHandleData.php
index 8db0cec1c6..1aced1f81f 100644
--- a/src/applications/phid/handle/data/PhabricatorObjectHandleData.php
+++ b/src/applications/phid/handle/data/PhabricatorObjectHandleData.php
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ final class PhabricatorObjectHandleData {
   public function loadObjects() {
     $types = array();
     foreach ($this->phids as $phid) {
-      $type = self::lookupType($phid);
+      $type = phid_get_type($phid);
       $types[$type][] = $phid;
     }
 
@@ -98,11 +98,7 @@ final class PhabricatorObjectHandleData {
 
   public function loadHandles() {
 
-    $types = array();
-    foreach ($this->phids as $phid) {
-      $type = self::lookupType($phid);
-      $types[$type][] = $phid;
-    }
+    $types = phid_group_by_type($this->phids);
 
     $handles = array();
 
@@ -497,13 +493,4 @@ final class PhabricatorObjectHandleData {
 
     return $handles;
   }
-
-  public static function lookupType($phid) {
-    $matches = null;
-    if (preg_match('/^PHID-([^-]{4})-/', $phid, $matches)) {
-      return $matches[1];
-    }
-    return PhabricatorPHIDConstants::PHID_TYPE_UNKNOWN;
-  }
-
 }
diff --git a/src/applications/phid/handle/data/__init__.php b/src/applications/phid/handle/data/__init__.php
index 7e7e93e86b..59fd9a6be7 100644
--- a/src/applications/phid/handle/data/__init__.php
+++ b/src/applications/phid/handle/data/__init__.php
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/maniphest/constants/status');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/phid/constants');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/phid/handle');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/phid/handle/const/status');
+phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/phid/utils');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/phriction/storage/document');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/repository/constants/repositorytype');
 phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/repository/storage/repository');
diff --git a/src/applications/phid/utils/__init__.php b/src/applications/phid/utils/__init__.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3e6d3c3113
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/applications/phid/utils/__init__.php
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * This file is automatically generated. Lint this module to rebuild it.
+ * @generated
+ */
+
+
+
+phutil_require_module('phabricator', 'applications/phid/constants');
+
+
+phutil_require_source('utils.php');
diff --git a/src/applications/phid/utils/utils.php b/src/applications/phid/utils/utils.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a006fb47c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/applications/phid/utils/utils.php
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * Copyright 2012 Facebook, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * Look up the type of a PHID. Returns
+ * PhabricatorPHIDConstants::PHID_TYPE_UNKNOWN if it fails to look up the type
+ *
+ * @param   phid Anything.
+ * @return  A value from PhabricatorPHIDConstants (ideally)
+ */
+function phid_get_type($phid) {
+  $matches = null;
+  if (is_string($phid) && preg_match('/^PHID-([^-]{4})-/', $phid, $matches)) {
+    return $matches[1];
+  }
+  return PhabricatorPHIDConstants::PHID_TYPE_UNKNOWN;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Group a list of phids by type. Given:
+ *
+ *   phid_group_by_type([PHID-USER-1, PHID-USER-2, PHID-PROJ-3])
+ *
+ * phid_group_by_type would return:
+ *
+ *   [PhabricatorPHIDConstants::PHID_TYPE_USER => [PHID-USER-1, PHID-USER-2],
+ *    PhabricatorPHIDConstants::PHID_TYPE_PROJ => [PHID-PROJ-3]]
+ *
+ * @param   phids array of phids
+ * @return  map of phid type => list of phids
+ */
+function phid_group_by_type($phids) {
+  $result = array();
+  foreach ($phids as $phid) {
+    $type = phid_get_type($phid);
+    $result[$type][] = $phid;
+  }
+  return $result;
+}