diff --git a/python-package/lightgbm/basic.py b/python-package/lightgbm/basic.py
index ae9b821dd9aa..efef761a0072 100644
--- a/python-package/lightgbm/basic.py
+++ b/python-package/lightgbm/basic.py
@@ -239,6 +239,8 @@ def c_int_array(data):
 
 def _data_from_pandas(data, feature_name, categorical_feature, pandas_categorical):
     if isinstance(data, DataFrame):
+        if len(data.shape) != 2 or data.shape[0] < 1:
+            raise ValueError('Input data must be 2 dimensional and non empty.')
         if feature_name == 'auto' or feature_name is None:
             data = data.rename(columns=str)
         cat_cols = data.select_dtypes(include=['category']).columns