Can I start a sentence with "i.e."?

Combo of my and @FumbleFingers' comments, which I believe would constitute an answer:

While one couldn't empirically insist that a sentence cannot begin with i.e., doing so would unnecessarily raise some eyebrows. Might I suggest a couple of alternatives?

• How do we handle the case when the list is empty (i.e. the filter matched no entries)?
• How do we handle the case when the list is empty, i.e. the filter matched no entries?

My view is that i.e. can usually be replaced with that is to say, so if you are prepared to start a sentence with "That is to say" then "I.e." should be OK too, and if not then not.

I think it is fine.

I think it's a stylistic question more than a grammatical one. Grammatically speaking, "i.e." isn't even true English, it's short for the Latin phrase "id est" (translation: "that is"). Some would say it's best to avoid non-English terms whenever possible, and it's certainly possible here by simply saying "that is."

Perhaps then the question becomes "Can I begin a sentence with 'That is?'" And again, the grammatical answer is probably yes, but it still seems like sloppy style... at least to me.