diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/IR/SparseTensorDialect.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/IR/SparseTensorDialect.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/IR/SparseTensorDialect.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/IR/SparseTensorDialect.cpp
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 #include "mlir/Dialect/SparseTensor/IR/SparseTensor.h"
 
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Arith/IR/Arith.h"
+#include "mlir/Dialect/Func/IR/FuncOps.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/Builders.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/DialectImplementation.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/Matchers.h"
@@ -1019,6 +1020,9 @@
 }
 
 LogicalResult SortOp::verify() {
+  if (!(*this)->getParentOfType<func::FuncOp>())
+    return emitError("Expected parent op to be func::FuncOp");
+
   if (getXs().empty())
     return emitError("need at least one xs buffer.");