Why does Sys.getenv("USERNAME") return empty result in Power BI?

[Brian_M]

Can someone explain why this R script is not allowed to return environment information in Power BI?

If I run it in RGui then I receive the Windows username as expected

let
    source = R.Execute("Sys.getenv(""USERNAME"")")
in
    source

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @Brian_M,

I can reproduce your issue, even if I test "OS", "Path" but I still get the empty result. I also try to use "get data" from R script and get the same result.

Can you directly use R script to get the environment variables? If you can, it may means power bi not allow use R script to get environment information.

In addition, you can take a look at below article about using R script:

Running R Scripts in Power BI Desktop 

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[Brian_M]

Thanks for the link.  Yes, it works when used directly in R so it appears that Power BI is sandboxed in some way that it can't read that type of information.