diff --git a/inst/include/dplyr/Order.h b/inst/include/dplyr/Order.h
index a29c3ed1cf..a66ed85126 100644
--- a/inst/include/dplyr/Order.h
+++ b/inst/include/dplyr/Order.h
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ namespace dplyr {
     } ;
     
     inline Rcpp::IntegerVector OrderVisitors::apply() const {
+        if ( nrows == 0 ) return IntegerVector::create();
         IntegerVector x = seq(0, nrows -1 ) ;
         std::sort( x.begin(), x.end(), OrderVisitors_Compare(*this) ) ;
         return x ;