diff --git a/src/variable.cpp b/src/variable.cpp
index 061c302d8b..880061bae1 100644
--- a/src/variable.cpp
+++ b/src/variable.cpp
@@ -4221,13 +4221,14 @@ int Variable::special_function(char *word, char *contents, Tree **tree,
       if (eval_in_progress[ivar])
         print_var_error(FLERR,"Variable has circular dependency",ivar);
 
-      if ((method == AVE) && (nvec == 0))
-        print_var_error(FLERR,"Cannot compute average of empty vector",ivar);
-
       double *vec;
       nvec = compute_vector(ivar,&vec);
       nstride = 1;
 
+      if ((method == AVE) && (nvec == 0))
+        print_var_error(FLERR,"Cannot compute average of empty vector",ivar);
+
+
     } else print_var_error(FLERR,"Invalid special function in "
                            "variable formula",ivar);