Python: Access Environment Variables

The Operating System Environment variables are dynamic values that can affect the behavior of programs and scripts running on the system.

If you are wondering how to access Environment Variables in your Python code, remember to make use of the os module.

The os.environ is a dictionary-like object in Python's os module which you can use to access the environment variables of the current operating system.

Let's take a look at some code examples (based on macOS):

Example 1:

import os
print(os.environ["CONDA_PYTHON_EXE"])

/Users/c2ctech/anaconda3/bin/python

Example 2:

import os
print(os.environ["HOME"])

/Users/c2ctech

Example 3:

import os
print(os.environ["HOMEBREW_PREFIX"])

//opt/homebrew