How to access environment variable values?

Question

I set an environment variable that I want to access in my Python application. How do I get its value?

Answer 1

If you are planning to use the code in a production web application code,
using any web framework like Django/Flask, use projects like envparse, using it you can read the value as your defined type.

from envparse import env
# will read WHITE_LIST=hello,world,hi to white_list = ["hello", "world", "hi"]
white_list = env.list("WHITE_LIST", default=[]) 
# Perfect for reading boolean
DEBUG = env.bool("DEBUG", default=False)

NOTE: kennethreitz's autoenv is a recommended tool for making project specific environment variables, please note that those who are using autoenv please keep the .env file private (inaccessible to public)