diff --git a/base/sparse/csparse.jl b/base/sparse/csparse.jl
index 990935939fc73..d33550fea378b 100644
--- a/base/sparse/csparse.jl
+++ b/base/sparse/csparse.jl
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ function csc_permute{Tv,Ti}(A::SparseMatrixCSC{Tv,Ti}, pinv::Vector{Ti}, q::Vect
     end
     if !isperm(pinv) || !isperm(q) error("both pinv and q must be permutations") end
     C = copy(A); Cp = C.colptr; Ci = C.rowval; Cx = C.nzval
-    nz = zero(Ti)
+    nz = one(Ti)
     for k in 1:n
         Cp[k] = nz
         j = q[k]
@@ -354,7 +354,6 @@ immutable TrilFun <: Func{4} end
 call(::TrilFun, i,j,x,other) = i>=j - other
 
 droptol!(A::SparseMatrixCSC, tol) = fkeep!(A, DropTolFun(), tol)
-droptol(A::SparseMatrixCSC) = droptol!(copy(A))
 dropzeros!(A::SparseMatrixCSC) = fkeep!(A, DropZerosFun(), nothing)
 dropzeros(A::SparseMatrixCSC) = dropzeros!(copy(A))
 
diff --git a/test/sparsedir/sparse.jl b/test/sparsedir/sparse.jl
index b956cc473065f..7edbe25a583ad 100644
--- a/test/sparsedir/sparse.jl
+++ b/test/sparsedir/sparse.jl
@@ -909,7 +909,6 @@ A = sparse(ones(5,5))
 @test_throws DimensionMismatch one(sprand(5,6,0.2))
 
 #istriu/istril
-
 A = sparse(triu(rand(5,5)))
 @test istriu(A)
 @test !istriu(sparse(ones(5,5)))
@@ -918,29 +917,24 @@ A = sparse(tril(rand(5,5)))
 @test !istril(sparse(ones(5,5)))
 
 # symperm
-
 srand(1234321)
 A = triu(sprand(10,10,0.2))       # symperm operates on upper triangle
 perm = randperm(10)
 @test symperm(A,perm).colptr == [1,2,3,3,3,4,5,5,7,9,10]
 
 # droptol
-
 @test Base.droptol!(A,0.01).colptr == [1,1,1,2,2,3,4,6,6,7,9]
 
 #trace
-
 @test_throws DimensionMismatch trace(sparse(ones(5,6)))
 @test trace(speye(5)) == 5
 
 #diagm on a matrix
-
 @test_throws DimensionMismatch diagm(sparse(ones(5,2)))
 @test_throws DimensionMismatch diagm(sparse(ones(2,5)))
 @test diagm(sparse(ones(1,5))) == speye(5)
 
 # triu/tril
-
 A = sprand(5,5,0.2)
 AF = full(A)
 @test full(triu(A,1)) == triu(AF,1)
@@ -1098,3 +1092,9 @@ Ari = ceil(Int64,100*Ar)
 
 @test_throws ErrorException transpose(sub(sprandn(10, 10, 0.3), 1:4, 1:4))
 @test_throws ErrorException ctranspose(sub(sprandn(10, 10, 0.3), 1:4, 1:4))
+
+# csc_permute
+A = sprand(10,10,0.2)
+p = randperm(10)
+q = randperm(10)
+@test Base.SparseMatrix.csc_permute(A, invperm(p), q) == full(A)[p, q]