Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable Method

Definition

Namespace:

System

Assemblies:

netstandard.dll, System.Runtime.dll

Retrieves the value of an environment variable.

Overloads

GetEnvironmentVariable(String)	Retrieves the value of an environment variable from the current process.
GetEnvironmentVariable(String, EnvironmentVariableTarget)	Retrieves the value of an environment variable from the current process or from the Windows operating system registry key for the current user or local machine.

GetEnvironmentVariable(String)

Source:

Environment.cs

Retrieves the value of an environment variable from the current process.

C#

public static string? GetEnvironmentVariable(string variable);

Parameters

variable

String

The name of the environment variable.

Returns

String

The value of the environment variable specified by variable, or null if the environment variable is not found.

Exceptions

ArgumentNullException

variable is null.

SecurityException

The caller does not have the required permission to perform this operation.

Examples

The following example uses the GetEnvironmentVariable method to retrieve the windir environment variable, which contains the path of the Windows directory.

C#

using System;
using System.IO;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      if (Environment.OSVersion.Platform == PlatformID.Win32NT)
      {
         // Change the directory to %WINDIR%
         Environment.CurrentDirectory = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("windir");
         DirectoryInfo info = new DirectoryInfo(".");

         Console.WriteLine("Directory Info:   " + info.FullName);
      }
      else
      {
         Console.WriteLine("This example runs on Windows only.");
      }
   }
}
// The example displays output like the following on a .NET implementation running on Windows:
//        Directory Info:   C:\windows
// The example displays the following output on a .NET implementation on Unix-based systems:
//        This example runs on Windows only.

The following example attempts to retrieve the value of an environment variable named Test1 from the process environment block. If the variable doesn't exist, the example creates it and retrieves its value. The example displays the value of the variable. If the example created the variable, it also calls the GetEnvironmentVariables(EnvironmentVariableTarget) method with each member of the EnvironmentVariableTarget enumeration to establish that the variable can be retrieved only from the current process environment block. Finally, if the example created the variable, it deletes it.

C#

using System;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string value;
      bool toDelete = false;

      // Check whether the environment variable exists.
      value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("Test1");
      // If necessary, create it.
      if (value == null)
      {
         Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("Test1", "Value1");
         toDelete = true;

         // Now retrieve it.
         value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("Test1");
      }
      // Display the value.
      Console.WriteLine($"Test1: {value}\n");

      // Confirm that the value can only be retrieved from the process
      // environment block if running on a Windows system.
      if (Environment.OSVersion.Platform == PlatformID.Win32NT)
      {
         Console.WriteLine("Attempting to retrieve Test1 from:");
         foreach (EnvironmentVariableTarget enumValue in
                           Enum.GetValues(typeof(EnvironmentVariableTarget))) {
            value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("Test1", enumValue);
            Console.WriteLine($"   {enumValue}: {(value != null ? "found" : "not found")}");
         }
         Console.WriteLine();
      }

      // If we've created it, now delete it.
      if (toDelete) {
         Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("Test1", null);
         // Confirm the deletion.
         if (Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("Test1") == null)
            Console.WriteLine("Test1 has been deleted.");
      }
   }
}
// The example displays the following output if run on a Windows system:
//      Test1: Value1
//
//      Attempting to retrieve Test1 from:
//         Process: found
//         User: not found
//         Machine: not found
//
//      Test1 has been deleted.
//
// The example displays the following output if run on a Unix-based system:
//      Test1: Value1
//
//      Test1 has been deleted.

Remarks

For more information about this API, see Supplemental API remarks for Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable.

See also

• GetEnvironmentVariables()
• SetEnvironmentVariable(String, String)
• EnvironmentVariableTarget

GetEnvironmentVariable(String, EnvironmentVariableTarget)

Source:

Environment.cs

Retrieves the value of an environment variable from the current process or from the Windows operating system registry key for the current user or local machine.

C#

public static string? GetEnvironmentVariable(string variable, EnvironmentVariableTarget target);

Parameters

variable

String

The name of an environment variable.

target

EnvironmentVariableTarget

One of the EnvironmentVariableTarget values. Only Process is supported on .NET running on Unix-like systems.

Returns

String

The value of the environment variable specified by the variable and target parameters, or null if the environment variable is not found.

Exceptions

ArgumentNullException

variable is null.

ArgumentException

target is not a valid EnvironmentVariableTarget value.

SecurityException

The caller does not have the required permission to perform this operation.

Examples

The following example creates environment variables for the EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process, EnvironmentVariableTarget.User, and Machine targets, checks whether the operating system registry contains the user and machine environment variables, then deletes the environment variables. Because .NET on Unix-like systems does not support per-user and per-machine environment variables, only SetEnvironmentVariable(String, String) and SetEnvironmentVariable(String, String, EnvironmentVariableTarget) with a value of EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process successfully store an environment variable to the process environment block.

C#

using System;
using System.Collections;
using Microsoft.Win32;

class Sample
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // Environment variable names for default, process, user, and machine targets.
        string defaultEnvVar = nameof(defaultEnvVar);
        string processEnvVar = nameof(processEnvVar);
        string userEnvVar = nameof(userEnvVar);
        string machineEnvVar = nameof(machineEnvVar);

        string dft = nameof(dft);
        string process = nameof(process);
        string user = nameof(user);
        string machine = nameof(machine);

        // Set the environment variable for each target.
        Console.WriteLine("Setting environment variables for each target...\n");
        // The default target (the current process).
        Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(defaultEnvVar, dft);
        // The current process.
        Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(processEnvVar, process,
                                           EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
        // The current user.
        Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(userEnvVar, user,
                                           EnvironmentVariableTarget.User);
        // The local machine.
        Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(machineEnvVar, machine,
                                           EnvironmentVariableTarget.Machine);

        // Define an array of environment variables.
        string[] envVars = { defaultEnvVar,processEnvVar, userEnvVar, machineEnvVar };

        // Try to get the environment variables from each target.
        // The default (no specified target).
        Console.WriteLine("Retrieving environment variables from the default target:");
        foreach (var envVar in envVars)
        {
          var value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(envVar) ?? "(none)";
          Console.WriteLine($"   {envVar}: {value}");
        }
        // The process block.
        Console.WriteLine("\nRetrieving environment variables from the Process target:");
        foreach (var envVar in envVars)
        {
          var value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(envVar, EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process) ?? "(none)";
          Console.WriteLine($"   {envVar}: {value}");
        }
        // The user block.
        Console.WriteLine("\nRetrieving environment variables from the User target:");
        foreach (var envVar in envVars)
        {
          var value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(envVar, EnvironmentVariableTarget.User) ?? "(none)";
          Console.WriteLine($"   {envVar}: {value}");
        }
        // The machine block.
        Console.WriteLine("\nRetrieving environment variables from the Machine target:");
        foreach (var envVar in envVars)
        {
          var value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(envVar, EnvironmentVariableTarget.Machine) ?? "(none)";
          Console.WriteLine($"   {envVar}: {value}");
        }

        // Delete the environment variable for each target.
        Console.WriteLine("\nDeleting environment variables for each target...\n");
        // The default target (the current process).
        Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(defaultEnvVar, null);
        // The current process.
        Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(processEnvVar, null,
                                           EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
        // The current user.
        Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(userEnvVar, null,
                                           EnvironmentVariableTarget.User);
        // The local machine.
        Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(machineEnvVar, null,
                                           EnvironmentVariableTarget.Machine);
    }
}
// The example displays the following output if run on a Windows system:
//      Setting environment variables for each target...
//
//      Retrieving environment variables from the default target:
//        defaultEnvVar: dft
//        processEnvVar: process
//        userEnvVar: user
//        machineEnvVar: (none)
//
//      Retrieving environment variables from the Process target:
//        defaultEnvVar: dft
//        processEnvVar: process
//        userEnvVar: user
//        machineEnvVar: (none)
//
//      Retrieving environment variables from the User target:
//        defaultEnvVar: (none)
//        processEnvVar: (none)
//        userEnvVar: user
//        machineEnvVar: (none)
//
//      Retrieving environment variables from the Machine target:
//        defaultEnvVar: (none)
//        processEnvVar: (none)
//        userEnvVar: (none)
//        machineEnvVar: machine
//
//      Deleting environment variables for each target...
//
// The example displays the following output if run on a Unix-based system:
//
//      Setting environment variables for each target...
//
//      Retrieving environment variables from the default target:
//        defaultEnvVar: dft
//        processEnvVar: process
//        userEnvVar: (none)
//        machineEnvVar: (none)
//
//      Retrieving environment variables from the Process target:
//        defaultEnvVar: dft
//        processEnvVar: process
//        userEnvVar: (none)
//        machineEnvVar: (none)
//
//      Retrieving environment variables from the User target:
//        defaultEnvVar: (none)
//        processEnvVar: (none)
//        userEnvVar: (none)
//        machineEnvVar: (none)
//
//      Retrieving environment variables from the Machine target:
//        defaultEnvVar: (none)
//        processEnvVar: (none)
//        userEnvVar: (none)
//        machineEnvVar: (none)
//
//      Deleting environment variables for each target...

Remarks

For more information about this API, see Supplemental API remarks for Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable.

See also

• SetEnvironmentVariable(String, String, EnvironmentVariableTarget)
• GetEnvironmentVariables()
• EnvironmentVariableTarget