Character Variables in Simulink

I think this should be easy, but it isn't for some reason. What am I missing?

I want to pass a character variable from one block to the next.

Code:

busname.busobject = 'characterVariable';

I've also tried declaring 'char' as extrinsic and using:

busname.busobject = char('characterVariable');

but I keep getting this error:

Expression 'busname' for type of data 'busname' (#71) did not evaluate to a valid type.
Error evaluating properties of Simulink.Bus object 'busname' in workspace 'base' (used by block 'SimulinkModelName/MATLAB Function Block Name/ SFunction ').
DataType 'char' did not resolve to a valid data type.

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

[Kaustubha Govind]

Characters are not valid Simulink signal types - only numeric, fixed-point, enumerated and bus types (with elements of supported type) are supported. See Data Types Supported by Simulink.

Answer 2

[Seth Popinchalk]

While characters are not a type you can use on a signal line, you can cast them to an Int8 and then work with that. No blocks in Simulink support characters, so I'm guessing you are using S-functions. If that is the case, you can always cast the input signals back to char and work with them inside the S-functions without problem.