How to suppress typesetting of section title?

Question

I would like to suppress the typesetting of the section title in the document altogether, but still setting it for purposes of subsections, section mark / header, and table of contents.

What I tried already:

\section[MySection]{}

Still displays the section number.

\renewcommand{\thesection}{}
\section[MySection]{}

Removes the section number, but also removes it from subsection numbers and TOC. Besides, I still get a vertical space where the section title had been.

I could do (and have done so far):

\titleformat{\section}{}{}{0pt}{\vspace{-whatever_the_height_of_section_title}}

But it struck me as a bit ugly to "guess" the height of the section title (and having to re-guess if font sizes change). If there is some constant, like \sectionfontheight or somesuch, that would be a start.

But isn't there some "correct" way to set a section title "blindly", i.e. without actually printing it in the document?

Answer 1

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\newcommand{\nosection}[1]{%
  \refstepcounter{section}%
  \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{\protect\numberline{\thesection}#1}%
  \markright{#1}}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

\nosection{First}
\subsection{What?}

\nosection{Second}
\subsection{Right}

\end{document}

\refstepcounter sets the number and resets the subsection counter; \addcontentsline does its usual job; \markright sets the heading's contents.