Create Charts by Using the Stateflow API

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This example shows how to create a Stateflow® chart by using the Stateflow application programming interface (API). The Stateflow API is a tool to create or change Stateflow charts through MATLAB® commands. For more information, see Overview of the Stateflow API.

Create a Stateflow Chart

This Stateflow chart presents the logic underlying a half-wave rectifier. The chart contains two states labeled On and Off. In the On state, the chart output signal y is equal to the input x. In the Off state, the output signal is set to zero. When the input signal crosses some threshold t0, the chart transitions between these states. The actions in each state update the value of y at each time step of the simulation.

For more information on simulating this chart, see Construct and Run a Stateflow Chart.

1. Close all models.

bdclose all

2. Create a Simulink® model called rectify that contains an empty Stateflow Chart block.

sfnew rectify

Access the `Chart` Object

To use the Stateflow API, you begin by finding a handle to the Root object, which is the parent of all objects in the Stateflow API. Once you have a Root object handle, you can find a handle to the API objects that correspond to the Stateflow objects with which you want to work.

1. Use the function sfroot to get a handle to the Root object.

rt = sfroot;

2. Call the find method to get a handle to the Chart object that corresponds to the chart in your model.

ch = rt.find('-isa','Stateflow.Chart');

3. To open the chart in the Stateflow Editor, call its view method.

ch.view;

4. To change the action language, modify the ActionLanguage property of the chart.

ch.ActionLanguage = 'C';

Add States

To create a Stateflow API object, call the constructor method that corresponds to the object. Each constructor method takes a parent object as an input and returns a handle to the new object. For more information, see Create and Destroy Stateflow Objects.

1. Call the constructor method Stateflow.State to add a state to the chart.

s1 = Stateflow.State(ch);

2. Adjust the position of the state by changing the Position property of the corresponding State object.

s1.Position = [30 30 90 60];

3. Specify the name and label for the state by changing the LabelString property, as described in Specify Labels in States and Transitions Programmatically.

s1.LabelString = ['On',10,'y = x;'];

4. Create a second state. Adjust its position and specify its name and label.

s2 = Stateflow.State(ch);
s2.Position = [230 30 90 60];
s2.LabelString = ['Off',10,'y = 0;'];

Add Transitions

When you add a transition, you specify its source and destination by modifying its Source and Destination properties. For a default transition, you specify a destination but no source.

1. Call the constructor method Stateflow.Transition to add a transition to the chart.

t1 = Stateflow.Transition(ch);

2. Set the transition source and destination.

t1.Source = s1;
t1.Destination = s2;

3. Adjust the position of the transition by modifying its SourceOClock property.

t1.SourceOClock = 2.1;

4. Specify the transition label and its position by changing the LabelString and LabelPosition properties.

t1.LabelString = '[x<t0]';
t1.LabelPosition= [159 23 31 16];

5. Create a second transition. Specify its source, destination, and label.

t2 = Stateflow.Transition(ch);
t2.Source = s2;
t2.Destination = s1;
t2.SourceOClock = 8.1;
t2.LabelString = '[x>=t0]';
t2.LabelPosition= [155 81 38 16];

6. Add a default transition to the state On. To make a vertical transition, modify the values of the SourceEndpoint and Midpoint properties. For more information, see Create Default Transition Objects.

t0 = Stateflow.Transition(ch);
t0.Destination = s1;
t0.DestinationOClock = 0;
t0.SourceEndpoint = t0.DestinationEndpoint-[0 30];
t0.Midpoint = t0.DestinationEndpoint-[0 30];

Add Data

Before you can simulate your chart, you must define each data symbol that you use in the chart and specify its scope and type.

1. Call the constructor method Stateflow.Data to add a data object that represents the input to the chart.

x = Stateflow.Data(ch);

2. Specify the name of the data object as 'x' and its scope as 'Input'.

x.Name = 'x';
x.Scope = 'Input';

3. To specify that the input x has type double, set its Props.Type.Method property to 'Built-in'. The default built-in data type is 'double'.

x.Props.Type.Method = 'Built-in';
x.DataType

ans = 
'double'

4. Add a data object that represents the output for the chart. Specify its name as 'y' and its scope as 'Output'.

y = Stateflow.Data(ch);
y.Name = 'y';
y.Scope = 'Output';

5. To specify that the output y has type single, set its Props.Type.Method property to 'Built-in' and its DataType property to 'single'.

y.Props.Type.Method = 'Built-in';
y.DataType = 'single';
y.DataType

ans = 
'single'

6. Add a data object that represents the transition threshold in the chart. Specify its name as 't0' and its scope as 'Constant'. Set its initial value to 0.

t0 = Stateflow.Data(ch);
t0.Name = 't0';
t0.Scope = 'Constant';
t0.Props.InitialValue = '0';

7. To specify that the threshold t0 has a fixed-point data type, set its Props.Type.Method property to 'Fixed-point'. Then specify the values of the Props.Type properties that apply to fixed-point data.

t0.Props.Type.Method = 'Fixed point';
t0.Props.Type.Signed = true;
t0.Props.Type.WordLength = '5';
t0.Props.Type.Fixpt.ScalingMode = 'Binary point';
t0.Props.Type.Fixpt.FractionLength = '2';
t0.DataType