Difference between \tableofcontents and \tableofcontents{}

Question

What if any difference is there between \tableofcontents and \tableofcontents{}?

I noticed that inserting a TOC in LyX uses the {} while the classicthesis template for LyX does not. Any reason?

Answer 1

There is no difference at all in any of the usual classes \tableofcontents doesn't take an argument so the {} just open and closes a group but otherwise does nothing.

Automated TeX generators tend to put {} after command names to avoid problems with following text.

\tableofcontentshello wouldn't work whereas \tableofcontents{}hello is OK. In this case though that isn't likely to be an issue as \tableofcontents is usually followed by a sectioning command or a blank line rather than text.