initialize fortran character array with variable length strings

I have a code where I set up a character array with set of default "options", which I may or may not wish to overwrite during the code execution. If I initialize the array with strings of all the same length (shorter or equal to the maximum possible length of 5), then the code works:

PROGRAM test
  character(len=5) :: s(3)=["a","b","c"]
  s(1)="12345678"
  print *,s
END PROGRAM test

output

12345b    c

But if the strings are variable lengths.

character(len=5) :: s(3)=["a","bb","c"]

Then I get a compilation error:

Error: Different CHARACTER lengths (1/2) in array constructor at (1)

I can get it to work by padding with spaces to make all string equal like this

 character(len=5) :: s(3)=["a ","bb","c "]

But that is a bit tedious for my actual example as I have some very long strings, so it is a lot of space-bar-pressing-while-counting-out-loud... Is there a way to inititalize character arrays with variable length variables, i.e. some kind of auto padding?

Solution

You need to manually specify the type-spec in the array constructor, as

character(len=5) :: s(3) = [character(len=5) :: "a", "bb", "c"]

this will convert each element in the array to same type, character(len=5), such that the array constructor is legal.