[f2py] How to pass string to F90 module data

Hello:

       I have difficulty to pass python strings to F90 module data 
variables with different length. I have declared at module level 
variables as fixed length character, say 50. I want to pass a python 
string variable of length 12 to it.

       The problem is I can't  predict in advance the length of python 
string, and F90 won't let me declare variable length character. Any 
suggestion? Thanks,


Joe S