Template:Void
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This template does nothing—more precisely, 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, and unlike "commenting out" with <!-- -->, 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 them with ^|, so 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 wikisource 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.
Alternatives[edit]
{{Null}} redirects here. It's 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[edit]
TemplateData for Void
<TemplateData>{"description":"A template to show the null string","params":{}}</TemplateData>
See also[edit]
- Template:Text - a template that just displays its first parameter unchanged.