# How to create reference to global variables from environment variables?

**URL:** <https://community.postman.com/t/how-to-create-reference-to-global-variables-from-environment-variables/35261>\
**Category:** Help Hub\
**Tags:** variables\
**Created:** [May 12, 2022, 7:39pm UTC](https://community.postman.com/t/how-to-create-reference-to-global-variables-from-environment-variables/35261 "2022-05-12T19:39:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![234545](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e495f1/32.png) [@234545](https://community.postman.com/u/234545)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 7:39pm UTC](https://community.postman.com/t/how-to-create-reference-to-global-variables-from-environment-variables/35261/1 "2022-05-12T19:39:07Z")

</div>

_My question_: How to create reference to global variables from environment variables?

_Details (like screenshots)_:  
I type {{ in the environment variable section for the initial value section and there is no drop down to pick a variable (such as globals).

_How I found the problem_:  
In my case I have different base API urls like:  
[https://mydata.com](https://mydata.com)  
[https://dev-mydata.com](https://dev-mydata.com)  
[https://test-mydata.com](https://test-mydata.com)

And I have different authentication accounts like:  
username: John  
password: sql395

username: Sam  
password: React458

I don’t want to repeat these more than once, but at the same time I want an environment for each user to each base API url. So I want environments like:  
John Prod  
John Dev  
John Test  
Sam Prod  
Sam Dev  
Sam Test

So if I make a global variable for each url and credential, then I was thinking of just making an environment for each of the above and reference the global variables for each url and credential combination.

_I’ve already tried_:  
Typing {{ on the initial value field.