--- a/liboctave/array/Sparse.cc	Sun Dec 21 17:49:28 2014 -0500
+++ b/liboctave/array/Sparse.cc	Sun Dec 21 17:38:14 2014 -0500
@@ -1493,9 +1493,12 @@
           // If indexing a sparse column vector by a vector, the result is a
           // sparse column vector, otherwise it inherits the shape of index.
           // Vector transpose is cheap, so do it right here.
+
+          Array<octave_idx_type> tmp_idx = idx.as_array ().as_matrix ();
+
           const Array<octave_idx_type> idxa = (idx_dims(0) == 1
-                                               ? idx.as_array ().transpose ()
-                                               : idx.as_array ());
+                                               ? tmp_idx.transpose ()
+                                               : tmp_idx);
 
           octave_idx_type new_nr = idxa.rows ();
           octave_idx_type new_nc = idxa.cols ();

--- a/test/build-sparse-tests.sh	Sun Dec 21 17:49:28 2014 -0500
+++ b/test/build-sparse-tests.sh	Sun Dec 21 17:38:14 2014 -0500
@@ -855,7 +855,7 @@
 %!assert (as(idx'), sparse (af(idx')));
 %!assert (as(flipud (idx(:))), sparse (af(flipud (idx(:)))))
 %!assert (as([idx,idx]), sparse (af([idx,idx])))
-%!error (as(reshape ([idx;idx], [1,length(idx),2])))
+%!assert (as(reshape ([idx;idx], [1,length(idx),2])), sparse(af(reshape ([idx;idx], [1,length(idx),2]))))
 
 %% Slice tests
 %!assert (as(ridx,cidx), sparse (af(ridx,cidx)))