https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=78618
--- Comment #1 from Gerhard Steinmetz <gerhard.steinmetz.fort...@t-online.de> --- Working variants : $ cat z2.f90 program p character :: c = char(256,4) print *, rank(c) end $ gfortran-7-20161127 z2.f90 z2.f90:2:19: character :: c = char(256,4) 1 Error: Character '\u0100' in string at (1) cannot be converted into character kind 1 $ cat z3.f90 program p character, parameter :: c = char(255,4) print *, rank(c) end $ gfortran-7-20161127 z3.f90 $ a.out 0