Raise error when sorting by categorical column in dask-cudf

python/dask_cudf/dask_cudf/expr/_collection.py

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 from dask import config
 from dask.dataframe.core import is_dataframe_like
+from dask.dataframe.dispatch import is_categorical_dtype
 
 import cudf
 
@@ -81,6 +82,24 @@ def from_dict(cls, *args, **kwargs):
         with config.set({"dataframe.backend": "cudf"}):
             return DXDataFrame.from_dict(*args, **kwargs)
 
+    def sort_values(
+        self,
+        by,
+        **kwargs,
+    ):
+        # Raise if the first column is categorical, otherwise the
+        # upstream divisions logic may produce errors
+        # (See: https://github.com/rapidsai/cudf/issues/11795)
+        check_by = by[0] if isinstance(by, list) else by
+        if is_categorical_dtype(self.dtypes.get(check_by, None)):
+            raise NotImplementedError(
+                "Dask-cudf does not support sorting on categorical "
+                "columns when query-planning is enabled. Please use "
+                "the legacy API for now."
+                f"\n{_LEGACY_WORKAROUND}",
+            )
+        return super().sort_values(by, **kwargs)
+
     def groupby(
         self,
         by,

python/dask_cudf/dask_cudf/tests/test_sort.py

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
         pytest.param(
             "d",
             marks=xfail_dask_expr(
-                "Dask-expr fails to sort by categorical column."
+                "Possible segfault when sorting by categorical column.",
             ),
         ),
         ["a", "b"],
@@ -47,6 +47,17 @@ def test_sort_values(nelem, nparts, by, ascending):
     dd.assert_eq(got, expect, check_index=False)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("by", ["b", ["b", "a"]])
+def test_sort_values_categorical_raises(by):
+    df = cudf.DataFrame()
+    df["a"] = np.ascontiguousarray(np.arange(10)[::-1])
+    df["b"] = df["a"].astype("category")
+    ddf = dd.from_pandas(df, npartitions=10)
+
+    with pytest.raises(NotImplementedError, match="sorting on categorical"):
+        ddf.sort_values(by=by)
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("ascending", [True, False])
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("by", ["a", "b", ["a", "b"]])
 def test_sort_values_single_partition(by, ascending):