diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/ScalaReflection.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/ScalaReflection.scala
index c1b1d5cd2dee..0aaf07204086 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/ScalaReflection.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/ScalaReflection.scala
@@ -407,10 +407,13 @@ object ScalaReflection extends ScalaReflection {
       val externalDataType = dataTypeFor(elementType)
       val Schema(catalystType, nullable) = silentSchemaFor(elementType)
       if (isNativeType(catalystType)) {
-        NewInstance(
-          classOf[GenericArrayData],
-          input :: Nil,
-          dataType = ArrayType(catalystType, nullable))
+        expressions.If(
+          IsNull(input),
+          expressions.Literal.create(null, ArrayType(catalystType, nullable)),
+          NewInstance(
+            classOf[GenericArrayData],
+            input :: Nil,
+            dataType = ArrayType(catalystType, nullable)))
       } else {
         val clsName = getClassNameFromType(elementType)
         val newPath = s"""- array element class: "$clsName"""" +: walkedTypePath
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/encoders/ExpressionEncoderSuite.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/encoders/ExpressionEncoderSuite.scala
index 7233e0f1b5ba..4fa67981e538 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/encoders/ExpressionEncoderSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/encoders/ExpressionEncoderSuite.scala
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import com.google.common.collect.MapMaker
 
 import org.apache.spark.SparkFunSuite
 import org.apache.spark.sql.Encoders
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.ScalaReflection
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.AttributeReference
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util.ArrayData
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.{OptionalData, PrimitiveData}
@@ -239,6 +240,24 @@ class ExpressionEncoderSuite extends SparkFunSuite {
     ExpressionEncoder.tuple(intEnc, ExpressionEncoder.tuple(intEnc, longEnc))
   }
 
+  test("null as array") {
+    val data = Seq(
+      (Array[Int](2, 1, 3), Array("b", "c", "a")),
+      (Array[Int](), Array[String]()),
+      (null, null)
+    )
+
+    val schema = ScalaReflection.schemaFor[Tuple2[Array[Int], Array[String]]]
+      .dataType.asInstanceOf[StructType]
+    val attributeSeq = schema.toAttributes
+    val arrayDataEncoder = encoderFor[Tuple2[Array[Int], Array[String]]]
+    val boundEncoder = arrayDataEncoder.resolve(attributeSeq, outers).bind(attributeSeq)
+    data.foreach { x =>
+      val convertedBack = boundEncoder.fromRow(boundEncoder.toRow(x))
+      assert(convertedBack._1 === x._1 && convertedBack._2 === x._2)
+    }
+  }
+
   test("nullable of encoder schema") {
     def checkNullable[T: ExpressionEncoder](nullable: Boolean*): Unit = {
       assert(implicitly[ExpressionEncoder[T]].schema.map(_.nullable) === nullable.toSeq)