diff --git a/src/main/java/org/janelia/saalfeldlab/n5/N5URI.java b/src/main/java/org/janelia/saalfeldlab/n5/N5URI.java
index 01f7b16b8..c655abe23 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/janelia/saalfeldlab/n5/N5URI.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/janelia/saalfeldlab/n5/N5URI.java
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import java.nio.charset.CharsetDecoder;
 import java.nio.charset.CoderResult;
 import java.nio.charset.CodingErrorAction;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -590,6 +591,42 @@ public static N5URI from(
 		return new N5URI(containerPart + groupPart + attributePart);
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Generate an {@link N5URI} from a String.
+	 *
+	 * @param uriOrPath
+	 *            a string representation of a uri or a path string.
+	 * @return the {@link N5URI}
+	 */
+	public static N5URI from(final String uriOrPath) {
+
+		try {
+			return new N5URI(new URI(uriOrPath));
+		} catch (Throwable ignore) {}
+
+		try {
+			final String[] split = uriOrPath.split("\\?");
+			final URI tmp = Paths.get(split[0]).toUri();
+			if (split.length == 1)
+				return new N5URI(tmp);
+			else {
+				StringBuffer buildUri = new StringBuffer();
+				buildUri.append(tmp.toString());
+				buildUri.append("?");
+				for (int i = 1; i < split.length; i++)
+					buildUri.append(split[i]);
+
+				return new N5URI(new URI(buildUri.toString()));
+			}
+		} catch (Throwable ignore) {}
+
+		try {
+			return new N5URI(N5URI.encodeAsUri(uriOrPath));
+		} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
+			throw new N5Exception(e);
+		}
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Intentionally copied from {@link URI} for internal use
 	 *
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/janelia/saalfeldlab/n5/N5URLTest.java b/src/test/java/org/janelia/saalfeldlab/n5/N5URLTest.java
index f8e626fef..d0d7e58b8 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/janelia/saalfeldlab/n5/N5URLTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/janelia/saalfeldlab/n5/N5URLTest.java
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 
 import org.junit.Test;
 
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
@@ -113,4 +116,26 @@ public void testGetRelative() throws URISyntaxException {
 				"s3://janelia-cosem-datasets/jrc_hela-3/jrc_hela-3.n5#f/g",
 				new N5URI("s3://janelia-cosem-datasets/jrc_hela-3/jrc_hela-3.n5").resolve("#f/g").toString());
 	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testContainerPath() throws URISyntaxException, IOException {
+
+		final String home = System.getProperty("user.home");
+//		final String posixPath = "/a/b/c/d?e#f";
+		final String systemPath = home + "?e#f";
+
+//		assertEquals(
+//				"/a/b/c/d",
+//				N5URI.from(posixPath).getContainerPath());
+
+		// normalize with File
+		final N5URI systemUri = N5URI.from(systemPath);
+		System.out.println( Paths.get(home).toFile().getCanonicalPath());
+		System.out.println("system uri path " + systemUri.getURI().getPath());
+		assertEquals(
+				Paths.get(home).toFile().getCanonicalPath(),
+				new File(systemUri.getURI().getPath()).getCanonicalPath());
+
+	}
+
 }
\ No newline at end of file