Template:Automatic category TOC/doc

Adds a Table of Contents (TOC) to a category page if the category's size warrants it.

The size thresholds are:

1. <= 100 pages → no TOC
2. 101–1200 pages → {{Category TOC}}
3. > 1200 pages → {{Large category TOC}}

Usage

{{Automatic category TOC}}

On category pages, {{Automatic category TOC}} can be placed wherever you want the TOC to be displayed.

On a category header template, it is best placed outside any <includeonly>...</includeonly> tags, so that the template is categorised as using this template.

Parameters

No parameters are needed.

However, the parameters available to {{Category TOC}} may be supplied, and if {{Automatic category TOC}} calls {{Category TOC}}, those parameters will be passed on to {{Category TOC}}.

So, for example, {{Automatic category TOC|align=center}} will:

1. Have no effect if no TOC is generated
2. Align to the center if {{Category TOC}} is used
3. Have no effect if {{Large category TOC}} is used, because {{Large category TOC}} accepts no parameters

Tracking

Effect	Pages	%
No TOC	10,451	96.89%
Standard {{Category TOC}}	308	2.86%
{{Large category TOC}}	28	0.26%
Total	10,787

Each page using this template is categorised in one of three tracking categories:

• Category:Automatic category TOC generates no TOC
• Category:Automatic category TOC generates standard Category TOC
• Category:Automatic category TOC generates Large category TOC

Templates which transclude {{Automatic category TOC}} are categorised in

• Category:Templates using Automatic category TOC (population: 6)

... but only if the transclusion is outside any <noinclude>...</noinclude> tags

Bugs

This template uses the magic word {{PAGESINCATEGORY}} to count the number of pages in the category. Unfortunately, this function can return wildly erroneous results on some categories which have had many pages added and removed.

This bug is well-known, and has been documented in several places since 2010, including:

• phab:T18036
• phab:T221795
• phab:T69196

In the overwhelming majority of categories, the count is recorded accurately enough to support use of this template. However, there seemed to be some issue with {{PAGESINCATEGORY}} falsely returning zero in some cases. This is tracked in:

• Category:Automatic category TOC on pages where PAGESINCATEGORY returns zero (population: 8,281)

As of 19 April 2020, that problem seems to have been fixed by a small but cunning tweak to how {{PAGESINCATEGORY}} is called.

The category should contain only pages labelled as "empty".

See also

• {{Automatic category TOC}} — auto-selects no TOC, {{Category TOC}}, or {{Large category TOC}}
• {{Category TOC}}
• {{Category TOC custom}}
• {{Collapsible large category TOC}}
• {{Large category TOC}}
• {{Large category TOC numeric}}
• {{Large category TOC years only}}
• {{Compact TOC}} — for articles