How to use Environmental Variables in NodeJS

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Environment variables are a quick and easy way to set up variables which may change from server to server, or from local machine to production server.

A classic example, is checking whether you are on the production server or not. You might then use HTTPS on your production server, but not on your local development machine.

Using Environmental Variables with NodeJS

NodeJS doesn't have an easily built in environmental capability, but fortunately there is an npm package which can help with that. To install it, run this command:


npm i dotenv

Now we have that installed, lets include it in the top of our Node.JS file:


import dotenv from 'dotenv';
dotenv.config();

Or with require..


// Or..
const dotenv = require('dotenv');
dotenv.config();

Great, now all we have to do is create a file in our base directory called .env. Inside it, we can put our variables in this format:


environment=production
serverid=000001

Then, in our Javascript, when we want to refer to a specific variable, we do it like this:


console.log(process.env.environment); // Returns production
console.log(process.env.serverid); // Returns 000001

Easy, right? And if we want to change the location of our .env file, we can update that in the config at the top of the page:


import dotenv from 'dotenv'
dotenv.config({ path: './path/to/new/.env' });

Last Updated 1611776280120

How to use Environmental Variables in NodeJS

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Using Environmental Variables with NodeJS

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