Empty Filter Options

Faceted filters feel broken when visitors click options that return zero results. WPEnhanced Ajax Filter Blocks gives you fine-grained control over whether—and when—empty choices appear.

Empty option behaviour is configured per Filter Posts Item under the Empty options panel. It applies to select, checkbox/radio, and similar option-based controls—not search fields or range sliders.

The four settings

Setting	Default	What it does
Show empty options	Off	When off, options with zero matching posts are hidden after counts update
Hide empty options on page load	Off	On first paint, hide zero-count options even if Show empty options is on
Display current terms only	Off	Limit options to terms attached to posts in the current result set
Hide filter when empty	On	Remove the entire filter item if no options would display

These settings interact with Show count and the parent Filter Posts Update filter count option.

Recommended patterns

Standard shop sidebar (hide dead ends)

Best for most WooCommerce faceted layouts:

Setting	Value
Show empty options	Off
Hide empty options on page load	Off
Hide filter when empty	On

Visitors only see attributes and categories that still yield products. Counts update after each filter change when Update filter count is enabled on Filter Posts.

Show all options initially, then narrow

Useful when you want visitors to see the full catalog structure before filtering:

Setting	Value
Show empty options	On
Hide empty options on page load	On

On first load every term appears. After the visitor selects a category, zero-result attributes disappear.

Strict dynamic facets

Maximum relevance—only terms present in current results:

Setting	Value
Display current terms only	On
Show empty options	Off

Common on large directories where showing every historical term is noisy.

How counts drive empty logic

1. Visitor loads the page—initial counts come from the base query (Archive Loop include/exclude + post type).
2. Visitor changes a filter—AJAX re-runs the query.
3. Depending on Update filter count on Filter Posts, counts refresh on all items, all except the active item, or not at all.
4. Options with count 0 are hidden unless Show empty options is enabled.

Enable Show count on items when you want visible numbers beside each label (e.g. “Blue (4)”).

note

On very large WooCommerce catalogs, count calculation can be slow. Catalog Index (Pro) pre-indexes options for faster count updates.

Hide filter when empty

When every option in an item would be hidden, Hide filter when empty removes the whole field—including its label—so you do not show an empty “Size” box with no choices.

Turn this off if you prefer to show a disabled filter with a message for accessibility or layout consistency.

Stock and WooCommerce interactions

Out-of-stock products affect counts depending on Stock visibility mode on Filter Posts (inherit global setting or override). If out-of-stock products are excluded from queries, their attributes may disappear from facet lists sooner.

Troubleshooting empty options

Symptom	Check
All options disappear after one click	Display current terms only may be too aggressive; verify include/exclude on Archive Loop
Options never hide	Enable Show count; set Update filter count on Filter Posts; confirm Show empty options is off
Counts stuck after first load	Update filter count set to “Do not update any filter counts”
Category shows but attributes empty	Normal—parent category may have no products with that attribute; adjust Hide filter when empty

More help: Empty options or counts troubleshooting.

Related settings

• Filter Posts Item → Count settings
• Filter Posts → Update filter count
• Common filter setups — Recipes with empty option defaults

What's next

• Filter sources and control types — Choose the right control for each source
• Catalog Index — Pro performance for large catalogs
• Common filter setups — Apply empty option defaults to real layouts