# Environment Variables in Django

One way of securing your secret keys from external viewers and codebase is to use environment variables. 

In Python, you can use the `os.getenv('THE_KEY')` or `os.environ.get('THE_KEY')`. 
For example, when working in Python, you can change tell Django to search for the value of the `SECRET_KEY`.

```python
SECRET_KEY = os.getenv("SECRET_KEY") 
# or
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get("SECRET_KEY") 
```

These lines will lead to software failure if there is no `SECRET_KEY` variable in the project's `.env` file.

To avoid that, you can pass as a second argument a default value.

```python
SECRET_KEY = os.getenv(
    "SECRET_KEY", "django-insecure-r(6dd3yaw_05m5kxki1vb^r6v@x^-g#zi_to7487*!)08oxwf)"
)
```

These methods are quite useful if you are looking to use env vars in Django. Anyway, you can also check [`django-environ`](https://django-environ.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) a Python package that allows you to use the Twelve-factor methodology to configure your Django application with environment variables.

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