Load Environment Variables From .env File using PHP

.env

HOST=localhost

symfony/dotenv library

1. Add symfony/dotenv library to composer.json file:

"require": {
    "symfony/dotenv": "^5.0"
}

2. Install library from the command line:

composer install

3. Load environment variables from .env file:

<?php

use Symfony\Component\Dotenv\Dotenv;

require_once __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';

$path = __DIR__.'/.env';
$dotenv = new Dotenv();
$dotenv->load($path);

$envVar = $_ENV['HOST'];

echo $envVar; // localhost