How to access environment variable values?

General Discussions
#1

How to access environment variable values?

#2

You can get the value of an environment variable in Python using the os module’s environ dictionary or the os.getenv() function.

Here are three ways to do it:

  • Using os.environ:
  • import os
  • value = os.environ[‘MY_ENV_VAR’]
#3

The os.getenv() function in Python’s os module is used to retrieve the value of an environment variable. It takes the name of the environment variable as an argument and returns its value as a string. If the environment variable is not found, it returns None.

This function is commonly used when you need to access configuration or system settings stored in environment variables within your Python code.

import os
value = os.getenv('MY_ENV_VAR')
#4

Hi, another method is by providing a default value:

import os
value = os.getenv('MY_ENV_VAR', 'default_value')

In this example, os.getenv(‘MY_ENV_VAR’, ‘default_value’) is used to retrieve the value of the environment variable MY_ENV_VAR. If the MY_ENV_VAR environment variable is set, its value will be returned. However, if the MY_ENV_VAR environment variable is not set, the function will return the default value ‘default_value’ instead.

This is useful when you want to provide a fallback value in case the environment variable is not set, ensuring that your code can handle both scenarios effectively.