{"id":18404,"date":"2025-12-29T09:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/?p=18404"},"modified":"2026-01-05T14:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:55:43","slug":"understanding-the-c-c-code-generated-from-a-simulink-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/2025\/12\/29\/understanding-the-c-c-code-generated-from-a-simulink-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the C\/C++ Code Generated from a Simulink model"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of the key benefits of Simulink is that you can generate C\/C++ code from the model using <\/span>Simulink Coder<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Embedded Coder<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/div>
However, I have to admit, looking at the code generated from Simulink for the first time can be intimidating. In this post, I will try to demystify that a little bit.<\/span><\/div>

The Challenge<\/span><\/h2>
The <\/span>first time you generate code<\/span><\/a> from a Simulink model, you notice that a folder gets created with multiple files in it. If you open one of them, for example \"<\/span>modelname.c<\/span>\", you will see something like this:<\/span><\/div>
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This probably raises a lot of questions: What are all those functions and variables? Where do they come from? Is there a naming convention? Can I control how the variables are named? How do the equations in the C code relate to the blocks and signals in my Simulink model?<\/span><\/div>
To help answer those questions, this post goes through the following:<\/span><\/div>