diff --git a/src/utils/algorithm.h b/src/utils/algorithm.h
index 8f9f97d92..dd5b458cf 100644
--- a/src/utils/algorithm.h
+++ b/src/utils/algorithm.h
@@ -1,39 +1,51 @@
 /*
     utils/algorithm.h
 
     This file is part of libkleopatra, the KDE keymanagement library
     SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 g10 Code GmbH
     SPDX-FileContributor: Ingo Klöcker <dev@ingo-kloecker.de>
 
     SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
 */
 
 #pragma once
 
 #include <algorithm>
 
 namespace Kleo
 {
 
 template<typename ForwardIterator, typename T>
 ForwardIterator binary_find(ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last, const T &value)
 {
     const ForwardIterator it = std::lower_bound(first, last, value);
     return (it == last || value < *it) ? last : it;
 }
 
 template<typename ForwardIterator, typename T, typename Compare>
 ForwardIterator binary_find(ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last, const T &value, Compare comp)
 {
     const ForwardIterator it = std::lower_bound(first, last, value, comp);
     return (it == last || comp(value, *it)) ? last : it;
 }
 
 template <typename Container, typename UnaryOperation>
 Container transformInPlace(Container &&c, UnaryOperation op)
 {
     std::transform(std::begin(c), std::end(c), std::begin(c), op);
     return std::move(c);
 }
+
+/** Convenience helper for checking if a @p container contains an element
+ *  with key equivalent to @p key. This is mainly meant to be used for the
+ *  associative standard containers until we can use their corresponding
+ *  member function in C++20.
+ */
+template<typename Container, typename Key>
+bool contains(const Container &container, const Key &key)
+{
+    return std::find(std::begin(container), std::end(container), key) != std::end(container);
+}
+
 }