diff --git a/modules/ml/src/data.cpp b/modules/ml/src/data.cpp
index 9bf4674c4a..01d51daee2 100644
--- a/modules/ml/src/data.cpp
+++ b/modules/ml/src/data.cpp
@@ -195,12 +195,13 @@ int CvMLData::read_csv(const char* filename)
             ptr++;
     }
 
+	cols_count++;
+
     if ( cols_count == 0)
     {
         fclose(file);
         return -1;
     }
-    cols_count++;
 
     // create temporary memory storage to store the whole database
     el_ptr = new float[cols_count];