Load Python Environment Variables

Declare persistent environment variables in Python virtual environments with python-dotenv.

python-dotenv allows specifying environment variables in .env (dot-env) files.

1. Create a .env file

.env

CLIENT_ID="duncan-1234509876"
CLIENT_SECRET="duncan-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

2. Import and Call python-dotenv

print_env.py

# Import load_dotenv from dotenv
from dotenv import load_dotenv

# Run load_dotenv() to make the .env file accessible as your source of environment variables
load_dotenv()

3. Access the Environment Variables

print_env.py

from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

load_dotenv()

client = os.getenv("CLIENT_ID")
secret = os.getenv("CLIENT_SECRET")

def print_env():
    print(f'Client id: {client}')
    print(f'Secret id: {secret}')

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print_env()