[Tex/LaTex] Table of contents causes fatal error

table of contents

When I attempt to include a table of contents in any file, it will not compile and I get a strange list of errors. For example, 

\documentclass[11pt]{amsart}

\begin{document}



\section{Dummy section}

\end{document}

compiles with no trouble, while

\documentclass[11pt]{amsart}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

\section{Dummy section}

\end{document}

gives five errors, beginning with

Paragraph ended before \contentsline was complete
You can't use '\lastskip' in vertical mode.

No output is produced. Please help, and thanks.

Best Answer

I can't say exactly what happened, but obviously LaTeX got interrupted by something during one of your compilations. This caused some incomplete data written into .aux and/or .toc and/or .lot, .lof, ... file. It is difficult to say what exactly it was, but deleting these files should solve the problem.

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