diff --git a/src/Dataset.py b/src/Dataset.py
index 52024c9c8b716a9fc9da3575528e8aece99d2a7d..a192474c67ec4ef3e8c24630fa2021c007103dc7 100644
--- a/src/Dataset.py
+++ b/src/Dataset.py
@@ -270,6 +270,10 @@ class Dataset:
         if type(colname) != str:
             logging.error("parameter `colname` is not a string")
             raise ValueError(f"{colname} is not a string")
+        if colname not in self.dataframe.columns:
+            logging.error("column requested not in dataframe")
+            raise KeyError(f"{colname} is not a column in dataframe")
+
         if not (ascending is None or type(ascending) is bool):
             logging.error("parameter `ascending` is not a bool or None")
             raise ValueError(f"{ascending} is not a bool or None")