Environment variable coming up as 'None" using dotenv python

Question

I am trying to use python-dotenv, but the environment variables I'm trying to pass keep coming up as 'None'. I have two files in the folder: .env & settings.py

I have the following in my .env file: TEST_VAR=jkh45k3j4h5k34j

And I have the following in the same folder in my settings.py:

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()

test_var = os.getenv("TEST_VAR")

print(test_var)

The output I get when running python3 settings.py is: None

Why am I not able to get the variable passed through to settings.py?

Answer 1

You have to give the full path to load_dotenv

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

# Get the path to the directory this file is in
BASEDIR = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))

# Connect the path with your '.env' file name
load_dotenv(os.path.join(BASEDIR, '.env'))

test_var = os.getenv("TEST_VAR")

print(test_var)

Answer 2

I had the same problem. After quick testing in my code, I noted that

from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv(".env")

doesn't load .env file properly (that's why it returns None to environment variables). The file is in the same directory.

When used find_dotenv instead of file path/name it works well.

from dotenv import load_dotenv, find_dotenv

load_dotenv(find_dotenv())

For info, find_dotenv is a function that automatically finds .env file.