Using Variables in Your .env File

Laravel’s .env file is included to use, so it’s easy to have a different configuration based on the environment your app is running on. This gives you the flexibility to have different variables for local, staging, production, and even different developers’ machines.

Typically these files are small and manageable, but there are times when you run into situations where you duplicate the same data within the file. Here is an example:

MAIL_USERNAME=hello@laravel-news.com
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=hello@laravel-news.com

The dotenv package that Laravel relies on can use variables with other defined variables in this same file. For example:

MAIL_USERNAME=hello@laravel-news.com
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=${MAIL_USERNAME}

Granted this file isn’t usually crazy long or complicated, but this simple trick allows you not to repeat yourself and can be useful when you have multiple services requiring the same piece of data.

Many thanks to Caleb Porzio for pointing out the ability to do this.