Template:Void

Template documentation

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This template does nothing visually. Technically, it throws away its parameters and outputs the null string.

It is useful for programming advanced templates, and is often used within a template to the right of an equals sign. It may also be used in a template to disambiguate parsing of braces.

It can also be used to temporarily disable code. Unlike "commenting out" using HTML <!-- -->, it nests. This means that {{void|foo {{void|bar}} baz}} is valid, whereas <!-- foo <!-- bar --> baz --> will produce baz -->.

It provides a particularly concise way of temporarily disabling templates, by prefixing the template name with ^|, making the template name becomes the (ignored) first unnamed parameter. For example, suppose you have a page {{Under construction}} for several days, and wish to change that to {{In use}} during active editing sessions. Rather than delete the unused template, you can leave both templates in the wikitext and change from {{^|In use|...}}{{Under construction|...}} to {{In use|...}}{{^|Under construction|...}}.

Another possible application would be to temporarily disable an infobox on an article page while a problem with the infobox template itself is resolved.

A deeper no-op is {{subst:void|foobar}} or {{subst:^|foobar}}. It disappears completely upon saving.

Alternatives

{{Null}} also redirects here. It is also possible to use {{ns:0}}, the empty/void/null string for the main namespace.

It can be used in place of <nowiki/> to break character sequence parsing, for example {{nowrap|{''a''}{{null}}}} to force the first closing brace to be treated as part of the template parameter instead of as the end of the template expression.

TemplateData

This is the  TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard,  VisualEditor and other tools. Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template based on this TemplateData.

TemplateData for Void

{"description":"A template to show the null string, i.e. nothing. Any parameters are accepted and ignored.","params":{}}

See also

• Template:Nothing – a template that displays an invisible HTML tag
• Template:Text – a template that just displays its first parameter unchanged.