Can i store Objects in process.env

Question

I'm storing an object (which has several methods) into process.env as below:

var obj = createObject(); // returns new object process.env.OBJ = obj; 

When I access this object from other places like below, I don't see any of the methods.

var obj = process.env.OBJ; 

Showing [Object Object].

Why is that?

Answer 1

Short answer is: NO

No, you can't store objects in process.env because it stores environment variables like PATH, SHELL, TMPDIR and others, which are represented by String values. If you run command console.log(process.env); you can see all env variables of your system, in particular you can set your own env variables (e.g. process.env.home = 'home') which will be available during the process you run your nodejs application.

Solution exists!
Stringify JSON object and save as env variable. Then parse and use it when you need your object

Answer 2

process.env is to store your environmental variables not really to store your objects. You can store your variables like that:

process.env['CONSUMER_KEY'] = "" process.env['CONSUMER_SECRET'] = "" process.env['ACCESS_TOKEN_KEY'] = "" process.env['ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET'] = "" 

Here is a link to it https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#process_process_env

If you want to store your methods you should create a global object and assign your methods to that one.