Template:Empty section

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May be placed in a section that is completely empty, containing neither text nor sub-sections. Optional {{find sources}} links may be included.

Content tends to follow sectioning on Wikipedia, as editors naturally will tend to fill in sections over time. Therefore, using this template to set up good placeholder sections at the start of an article's lifespan can aid its development over time.

Usage

Parameters

• |date= : month and year the section was last checked for references; e.g., |date=April 2026
• |small= : Any value (typically "y", "yes", etc.) will make the template smaller. The template should normally be full-width when it applies to an entire section.
• |find= : search keywords for {{find sources}} param 1 (double-quoted search). This optional parameter adds a set of links produced by the {{find sources}} template to the output. If omitted, no "find sources" links are displayed.
• |find2= : search keywords for {{find sources}} param 2 (unquoted search).

Date

The |date= parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles to be expanded, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. You do not need to specify the date manually; a bot will add it later automatically.

Find parameters

There are two 'find' parameters available to control the presentation and operation of the {{find sources}} links optionally displayed by the template. By default, the template displays {{find sources}} with a quoted search query equivalent to the exact article title. Sometimes, especially if the article has a long, descriptive title, or if it includes parenthetical disambiguation terms, this may not give useful results. The find parameters can be used to provide the search keywords of your choice to the {{find sources}} links. Use:

• |find= to specify keywords for an exact search (double-quoted query); this corresponds to {{find sources}} positional param |1=.
• |find2= to specify keywords for an unquoted search; this corresponds to {{find sources}} param |2=.

Template Data

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Empty section in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Empty section

Maintenance template to be placed in sections that are empty, containing neither text nor sub-sections. Before tagging an empty section, consider removing the section heading instead – for example, an empty "Gallery", "See also" or "External links" section can safely be deleted. Puts articles into [[Category:Articles with empty sections]] and [[Category:Articles to be expanded]].

Template parameters[Edit template data]

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	date	The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example January 2013 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	Line	suggested
Section number	section	The ordinal number of the section to be edited (goes after "&section=" in the "adding to it" link) Example 3	Number	optional
Make template big	small	Enter anything other than "left" here to make the template box big and centred. Default left Example no Auto value no	Line	optional
"Find sources" verbatim search term	find	Verbatim search term for the links in the template for finding sources	Line	optional
"Find sources" non-verbatim search term	find2	Non-verbatim search term for the links in the template for finding sources	Line	optional
Comment	comment	Custom text to go after "This section is empty."	String	optional

Tracking categories

• Category:All articles to be expanded (2)
• Category:All articles with empty sections (1)

Redirects

• {{No content}}

See also

• {{Expand section}}
• {{Template:Empty section|section=yes}}
• {{No plot}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Empty section/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.