Cell arrays as top-level function outputs are not supported in MATLAB Function Block

Hi, all.

I have a trouble with making an output as a cell array in MATLAB function block in Simulink.

I tried to split a string with '\n' character into the cell array.

My function is shown below, it is simple code to output the cell array.

This cell array contains multiple strings.

function y = fcn(u)
s = 'test\ntest2\ntest3';
s_end = size(s,2);
% sp_s = {};
% sp_s = strsplit(s, '\n');
k = strfind(s, '\n');
sz_k = size(k,2);
out_elems = [];
out_elems = cell(sz_k+1,1);
for i = 1:1:sz_k+1
    
    if i == 1
        temp_pos = k(1,i);
        temp_str = s(1:temp_pos-1);
    elseif i == sz_k+1
        pre_temp_pos = k(1,i-1); 
        temp_str = s(pre_temp_pos+2:s_end);
    else
        temp_pos = k(1,i);
        pre_temp_pos = k(1,i-1); 
        temp_str = s(pre_temp_pos+2:temp_pos-1);
    end
    out_elems{i,1} = temp_str;
end

% temp_out = out_elems(1:sz_k+1,1);
y = out_elems;

And I got the following error.

Cell arrays as top-level function outputs are not supported in MATLAB Function Block. Output 'y' is a cell array.

Do you have any idea to solve this error in Simulink?

Thank you in advacned.

Best,

Yun

Answer 1

[Jonas]

The input and output of a MATLAB Function block in Simulink needs to be of a data type supported by Simulink. The data types supported by Simulink can be found here. Cell Array is not listed as a supported data type.

You can use cell arrays inside your MATLAB Function but as an output you can only output for example a vector of same data type, or a structure in the form of a Bus Object.

[Yunsik Jung]

Hi, Jonas.

Thank you for the comment!

Yun