diff --git a/lucene/codecs/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/simpletext/SimpleTextSimpleDocValuesFormat.java b/lucene/codecs/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/simpletext/SimpleTextSimpleDocValuesFormat.java
index 3d9981e33aa..4523937fbbc 100644
--- a/lucene/codecs/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/simpletext/SimpleTextSimpleDocValuesFormat.java
+++ b/lucene/codecs/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/simpletext/SimpleTextSimpleDocValuesFormat.java
@@ -227,8 +227,66 @@ public class SimpleTextSimpleDocValuesFormat extends SimpleDocValuesFormat {
     
     // nocommit
     @Override
-    public SortedDocValuesConsumer addSortedField(FieldInfo field, int valueCount, boolean fixedLength, int maxLength) throws IOException {
-      return null; // nocommit
+    public SortedDocValuesConsumer addSortedField(FieldInfo field, int valueCount, boolean fixedLength, final int maxLength) throws IOException {
+      writeFieldEntry(field);
+      // write numValues
+      SimpleTextUtil.write(data, NUMVALUES);
+      SimpleTextUtil.write(data, Integer.toString(valueCount), scratch);
+      SimpleTextUtil.writeNewline(data);
+      
+      // write maxLength
+      SimpleTextUtil.write(data, MAXLENGTH);
+      SimpleTextUtil.write(data, Integer.toString(maxLength), scratch);
+      SimpleTextUtil.writeNewline(data);
+      
+      int maxBytesLength = Integer.toString(maxLength).length();
+      StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+      for (int i = 0; i < maxBytesLength; i++) {
+        sb.append('0');
+      }
+      
+      // write our pattern for encoding lengths
+      SimpleTextUtil.write(data, PATTERN);
+      SimpleTextUtil.write(data, sb.toString(), scratch);
+      SimpleTextUtil.writeNewline(data);
+      final DecimalFormat encoder = new DecimalFormat(sb.toString(), new DecimalFormatSymbols(Locale.ROOT));
+      
+      int maxOrdBytes = Integer.toString(valueCount).length();
+      sb.setLength(0);
+      for (int i = 0; i < maxOrdBytes; i++) {
+        sb.append('0');
+      }
+      
+      // write our pattern for ords
+      SimpleTextUtil.write(data, ORDPATTERN);
+      SimpleTextUtil.write(data, sb.toString(), scratch);
+      SimpleTextUtil.writeNewline(data);
+      final DecimalFormat ordEncoder = new DecimalFormat(sb.toString(), new DecimalFormatSymbols(Locale.ROOT));
+
+      return new SortedDocValuesConsumer() {
+        
+        @Override
+        public void addValue(BytesRef value) throws IOException {
+          // write length
+          SimpleTextUtil.write(data, LENGTH);
+          SimpleTextUtil.write(data, encoder.format(value.length), scratch);
+          SimpleTextUtil.writeNewline(data);
+          
+          // write bytes
+          SimpleTextUtil.write(data, value);
+          // pad to fit
+          for (int i = value.length; i < maxLength; i++) {
+            data.writeByte((byte)' ');
+          }
+          SimpleTextUtil.writeNewline(data);
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void addDoc(int ord) throws IOException {
+          SimpleTextUtil.write(data, encoder.format(ord), scratch);
+          SimpleTextUtil.writeNewline(data);
+        }
+      };
     }
 
     /** write the header for this field */
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/SortedDocValuesConsumer.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/SortedDocValuesConsumer.java
index 9c80eb16344..e8b517b7432 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/SortedDocValuesConsumer.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/SortedDocValuesConsumer.java
@@ -17,15 +17,17 @@ package org.apache.lucene.codecs;
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
+import java.io.IOException;
+
 import org.apache.lucene.util.BytesRef;
 
 public abstract class SortedDocValuesConsumer {
 
   /** This is called, in value sort order, once per unique
    *  value. */
-  public abstract void addValue(BytesRef value);
+  public abstract void addValue(BytesRef value) throws IOException;
 
   /** This is called once per document after all values are
    *  added. */
-  public abstract void addDoc(int ord);
+  public abstract void addDoc(int ord) throws IOException;
 }