#bash has no character type: a character is a string of length 1
charA="A"
stringA="$charA"
#stringA is "A"
charStr="character $charA"
#charStr is "character A"
#printf %c takes the first character of its argument
printf -v firstChar '%c' "ABC"
#firstChar is "A"
echo "stringA is $stringA"
echo "charStr is $charStr"
echo "firstChar is $firstChar"