diff --git a/R/if-else2.R b/R/if-else2.R
index 37bf0a8..da39494 100644
--- a/R/if-else2.R
+++ b/R/if-else2.R
@@ -35,5 +35,8 @@
 #'   x3 = dplyr::if_else(str_detect2(y, "x is false"), FALSE, x)
 #' )
 if_else2 <- function(condition, true, false) {
+  if (!any(condition)) {
+    stop("No matches found. Did not make any replacements.")
+  }
   dplyr::if_else(condition, true, false, missing = false)
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-if-else2.R b/tests/testthat/test-if-else2.R
index 8e58d45..bb995f4 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-if-else2.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-if-else2.R
@@ -27,3 +27,11 @@ test_that("works with lists", {
     list(1, 2, NULL)
   )
 })
+
+test_that("throws an informative error when no matches are found", {
+  x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
+  expect_error(
+    if_else2(x < 0, 0, x),
+    "No matches found. Did not make any replacements."
+  )
+})