diff --git a/docs/sql-programming-guide.md b/docs/sql-programming-guide.md
index b077575155eb..7ae9847983d4 100644
--- a/docs/sql-programming-guide.md
+++ b/docs/sql-programming-guide.md
@@ -1223,6 +1223,13 @@ the following case-insensitive options:
      This is a JDBC writer related option. If specified, this option allows setting of database-specific table and partition options when creating a table (e.g., <code>CREATE TABLE t (name string) ENGINE=InnoDB.</code>). This option applies only to writing.
    </td>
   </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <td><code>createTableColumnTypes</code></td>
+    <td>
+     The database column data types to use instead of the defaults, when creating the table. Data type information should be specified in the same format as CREATE TABLE columns syntax (e.g: <code>"name CHAR(64), comments VARCHAR(1024)")</code>. The specified types should be valid spark sql data types. This option applies only to writing.
+    </td>
+  </tr>  
 </table>
 
 <div class="codetabs">
diff --git a/examples/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/JavaSQLDataSourceExample.java b/examples/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/JavaSQLDataSourceExample.java
index 82bb284ea3e5..1a7054614b34 100644
--- a/examples/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/JavaSQLDataSourceExample.java
+++ b/examples/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/JavaSQLDataSourceExample.java
@@ -258,6 +258,11 @@ private static void runJdbcDatasetExample(SparkSession spark) {
 
     jdbcDF2.write()
       .jdbc("jdbc:postgresql:dbserver", "schema.tablename", connectionProperties);
+
+    // Specifying create table column data types on write
+    jdbcDF.write()
+      .option("createTableColumnTypes", "name CHAR(64), comments VARCHAR(1024)")
+      .jdbc("jdbc:postgresql:dbserver", "schema.tablename", connectionProperties);
     // $example off:jdbc_dataset$
   }
 }
diff --git a/examples/src/main/python/sql/datasource.py b/examples/src/main/python/sql/datasource.py
index e9aa9d9ac258..e4abb0933345 100644
--- a/examples/src/main/python/sql/datasource.py
+++ b/examples/src/main/python/sql/datasource.py
@@ -169,6 +169,12 @@ def jdbc_dataset_example(spark):
     jdbcDF2.write \
         .jdbc("jdbc:postgresql:dbserver", "schema.tablename",
               properties={"user": "username", "password": "password"})
+
+    # Specifying create table column data types on write
+    jdbcDF.write \
+        .option("createTableColumnTypes", "name CHAR(64), comments VARCHAR(1024)") \
+        .jdbc("jdbc:postgresql:dbserver", "schema.tablename",
+              properties={"user": "username", "password": "password"})
     # $example off:jdbc_dataset$
 
 
diff --git a/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/SQLDataSourceExample.scala b/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/SQLDataSourceExample.scala
index 381e69cda841..82fd56de3984 100644
--- a/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/SQLDataSourceExample.scala
+++ b/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/SQLDataSourceExample.scala
@@ -181,6 +181,11 @@ object SQLDataSourceExample {
 
     jdbcDF2.write
       .jdbc("jdbc:postgresql:dbserver", "schema.tablename", connectionProperties)
+
+    // Specifying create table column data types on write
+    jdbcDF.write
+      .option("createTableColumnTypes", "name CHAR(64), comments VARCHAR(1024)")
+      .jdbc("jdbc:postgresql:dbserver", "schema.tablename", connectionProperties)
     // $example off:jdbc_dataset$
   }
 }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JDBCOptions.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JDBCOptions.scala
index d4d34646545b..89fe86c038b1 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JDBCOptions.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JDBCOptions.scala
@@ -119,6 +119,7 @@ class JDBCOptions(
   // E.g., "CREATE TABLE t (name string) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8"
   // TODO: to reuse the existing partition parameters for those partition specific options
   val createTableOptions = parameters.getOrElse(JDBC_CREATE_TABLE_OPTIONS, "")
+  val createTableColumnTypes = parameters.get(JDBC_CREATE_TABLE_COLUMN_TYPES)
   val batchSize = {
     val size = parameters.getOrElse(JDBC_BATCH_INSERT_SIZE, "1000").toInt
     require(size >= 1,
@@ -154,6 +155,7 @@ object JDBCOptions {
   val JDBC_BATCH_FETCH_SIZE = newOption("fetchsize")
   val JDBC_TRUNCATE = newOption("truncate")
   val JDBC_CREATE_TABLE_OPTIONS = newOption("createTableOptions")
+  val JDBC_CREATE_TABLE_COLUMN_TYPES = newOption("createTableColumnTypes")
   val JDBC_BATCH_INSERT_SIZE = newOption("batchsize")
   val JDBC_TXN_ISOLATION_LEVEL = newOption("isolationLevel")
 }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JdbcRelationProvider.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JdbcRelationProvider.scala
index 88f6cb002130..74dcfb06f5c2 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JdbcRelationProvider.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JdbcRelationProvider.scala
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ class JdbcRelationProvider extends CreatableRelationProvider
             } else {
               // Otherwise, do not truncate the table, instead drop and recreate it
               dropTable(conn, options.table)
-              createTable(conn, df.schema, options)
+              createTable(conn, df, options)
               saveTable(df, Some(df.schema), isCaseSensitive, options)
             }
 
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ class JdbcRelationProvider extends CreatableRelationProvider
             // Therefore, it is okay to do nothing here and then just return the relation below.
         }
       } else {
-        createTable(conn, df.schema, options)
+        createTable(conn, df, options)
         saveTable(df, Some(df.schema), isCaseSensitive, options)
       }
     } finally {
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JdbcUtils.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JdbcUtils.scala
index d89f60087417..774d1ba19432 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JdbcUtils.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/jdbc/JdbcUtils.scala
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.{AnalysisException, DataFrame, Row}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.InternalRow
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.encoders.RowEncoder
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.SpecificInternalRow
-import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util.{DateTimeUtils, GenericArrayData}
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.parser.CatalystSqlParser
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util.{CaseInsensitiveMap, DateTimeUtils, GenericArrayData}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.jdbc.{JdbcDialect, JdbcDialects, JdbcType}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
 import org.apache.spark.unsafe.types.UTF8String
@@ -680,18 +681,70 @@ object JdbcUtils extends Logging {
   /**
    * Compute the schema string for this RDD.
    */
-  def schemaString(schema: StructType, url: String): String = {
+  def schemaString(
+      df: DataFrame,
+      url: String,
+      createTableColumnTypes: Option[String] = None): String = {
     val sb = new StringBuilder()
     val dialect = JdbcDialects.get(url)
-    schema.fields foreach { field =>
+    val userSpecifiedColTypesMap = createTableColumnTypes
+      .map(parseUserSpecifiedCreateTableColumnTypes(df, _))
+      .getOrElse(Map.empty[String, String])
+    df.schema.fields.foreach { field =>
       val name = dialect.quoteIdentifier(field.name)
-      val typ: String = getJdbcType(field.dataType, dialect).databaseTypeDefinition
+      val typ = userSpecifiedColTypesMap
+        .getOrElse(field.name, getJdbcType(field.dataType, dialect).databaseTypeDefinition)
       val nullable = if (field.nullable) "" else "NOT NULL"
       sb.append(s", $name $typ $nullable")
     }
     if (sb.length < 2) "" else sb.substring(2)
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Parses the user specified createTableColumnTypes option value string specified in the same
+   * format as create table ddl column types, and returns Map of field name and the data type to
+   * use in-place of the default data type.
+   */
+  private def parseUserSpecifiedCreateTableColumnTypes(
+      df: DataFrame,
+      createTableColumnTypes: String): Map[String, String] = {
+    def typeName(f: StructField): String = {
+      // char/varchar gets translated to string type. Real data type specified by the user
+      // is available in the field metadata as HIVE_TYPE_STRING
+      if (f.metadata.contains(HIVE_TYPE_STRING)) {
+        f.metadata.getString(HIVE_TYPE_STRING)
+      } else {
+        f.dataType.catalogString
+      }
+    }
+
+    val userSchema = CatalystSqlParser.parseTableSchema(createTableColumnTypes)
+    val nameEquality = df.sparkSession.sessionState.conf.resolver
+
+    // checks duplicate columns in the user specified column types.
+    userSchema.fieldNames.foreach { col =>
+      val duplicatesCols = userSchema.fieldNames.filter(nameEquality(_, col))
+      if (duplicatesCols.size >= 2) {
+        throw new AnalysisException(
+          "Found duplicate column(s) in createTableColumnTypes option value: " +
+            duplicatesCols.mkString(", "))
+      }
+    }
+
+    // checks if user specified column names exist in the DataFrame schema
+    userSchema.fieldNames.foreach { col =>
+      df.schema.find(f => nameEquality(f.name, col)).getOrElse {
+        throw new AnalysisException(
+          s"createTableColumnTypes option column $col not found in schema " +
+            df.schema.catalogString)
+      }
+    }
+
+    val userSchemaMap = userSchema.fields.map(f => f.name -> typeName(f)).toMap
+    val isCaseSensitive = df.sparkSession.sessionState.conf.caseSensitiveAnalysis
+    if (isCaseSensitive) userSchemaMap else CaseInsensitiveMap(userSchemaMap)
+  }
+
   /**
    * Saves the RDD to the database in a single transaction.
    */
@@ -726,9 +779,10 @@ object JdbcUtils extends Logging {
    */
   def createTable(
       conn: Connection,
-      schema: StructType,
+      df: DataFrame,
       options: JDBCOptions): Unit = {
-    val strSchema = schemaString(schema, options.url)
+    val strSchema = schemaString(
+      df, options.url, options.createTableColumnTypes)
     val table = options.table
     val createTableOptions = options.createTableOptions
     // Create the table if the table does not exist.
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/jdbc/JDBCSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/jdbc/JDBCSuite.scala
index 5463728ca0c1..4a02277631f1 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/jdbc/JDBCSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/jdbc/JDBCSuite.scala
@@ -869,7 +869,7 @@ class JDBCSuite extends SparkFunSuite
 
   test("SPARK-16387: Reserved SQL words are not escaped by JDBC writer") {
     val df = spark.createDataset(Seq("a", "b", "c")).toDF("order")
-    val schema = JdbcUtils.schemaString(df.schema, "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/temp")
+    val schema = JdbcUtils.schemaString(df, "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/temp")
     assert(schema.contains("`order` TEXT"))
   }
 
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/jdbc/JDBCWriteSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/jdbc/JDBCWriteSuite.scala
index ec7b19e666ec..bf1fd160704f 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/jdbc/JDBCWriteSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/jdbc/JDBCWriteSuite.scala
@@ -17,15 +17,16 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.sql.jdbc
 
-import java.sql.DriverManager
+import java.sql.{Date, DriverManager, Timestamp}
 import java.util.Properties
 
 import scala.collection.JavaConverters.propertiesAsScalaMapConverter
 
 import org.scalatest.BeforeAndAfter
 
-import org.apache.spark.sql.{AnalysisException, Row, SaveMode}
-import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.jdbc.JDBCOptions
+import org.apache.spark.sql.{AnalysisException, DataFrame, Row, SaveMode}
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.parser.ParseException
+import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.jdbc.{JDBCOptions, JdbcUtils}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.internal.SQLConf
 import org.apache.spark.sql.test.SharedSQLContext
 import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
@@ -362,4 +363,147 @@ class JDBCWriteSuite extends SharedSQLContext with BeforeAndAfter {
       assert(sql("select * from people_view").count() == 2)
     }
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-10849: test schemaString - from createTableColumnTypes option values") {
+    def testCreateTableColDataTypes(types: Seq[String]): Unit = {
+      val colTypes = types.zipWithIndex.map { case (t, i) => (s"col$i", t) }
+      val schema = colTypes
+        .foldLeft(new StructType())((schema, colType) => schema.add(colType._1, colType._2))
+      val createTableColTypes =
+        colTypes.map { case (col, dataType) => s"$col $dataType" }.mkString(", ")
+      val df = spark.createDataFrame(sparkContext.parallelize(Seq(Row.empty)), schema)
+
+      val expectedSchemaStr =
+        colTypes.map { case (col, dataType) => s""""$col" $dataType """ }.mkString(", ")
+
+      assert(JdbcUtils.schemaString(df, url1, Option(createTableColTypes)) == expectedSchemaStr)
+    }
+
+    testCreateTableColDataTypes(Seq("boolean"))
+    testCreateTableColDataTypes(Seq("tinyint", "smallint", "int", "bigint"))
+    testCreateTableColDataTypes(Seq("float", "double"))
+    testCreateTableColDataTypes(Seq("string", "char(10)", "varchar(20)"))
+    testCreateTableColDataTypes(Seq("decimal(10,0)", "decimal(10,5)"))
+    testCreateTableColDataTypes(Seq("date", "timestamp"))
+    testCreateTableColDataTypes(Seq("binary"))
+  }
+
+  test("SPARK-10849: create table using user specified column type and verify on target table") {
+    def testUserSpecifiedColTypes(
+        df: DataFrame,
+        createTableColTypes: String,
+        expectedTypes: Map[String, String]): Unit = {
+      df.write
+        .mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+        .option("createTableColumnTypes", createTableColTypes)
+        .jdbc(url1, "TEST.DBCOLTYPETEST", properties)
+
+      // verify the data types of the created table by reading the database catalog of H2
+      val query =
+        """
+          |(SELECT column_name, type_name, character_maximum_length
+          | FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name = 'DBCOLTYPETEST')
+        """.stripMargin
+      val rows = spark.read.jdbc(url1, query, properties).collect()
+
+      rows.foreach { row =>
+        val typeName = row.getString(1)
+        // For CHAR and VARCHAR, we also compare the max length
+        if (typeName.contains("CHAR")) {
+          val charMaxLength = row.getInt(2)
+          assert(expectedTypes(row.getString(0)) == s"$typeName($charMaxLength)")
+        } else {
+          assert(expectedTypes(row.getString(0)) == typeName)
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    val data = Seq[Row](Row(1, "dave", "Boston"))
+    val schema = StructType(
+      StructField("id", IntegerType) ::
+        StructField("first#name", StringType) ::
+        StructField("city", StringType) :: Nil)
+    val df = spark.createDataFrame(sparkContext.parallelize(data), schema)
+
+    // out-of-order
+    val expected1 = Map("id" -> "BIGINT", "first#name" -> "VARCHAR(123)", "city" -> "CHAR(20)")
+    testUserSpecifiedColTypes(df, "`first#name` VARCHAR(123), id BIGINT, city CHAR(20)", expected1)
+    // partial schema
+    val expected2 = Map("id" -> "INTEGER", "first#name" -> "VARCHAR(123)", "city" -> "CHAR(20)")
+    testUserSpecifiedColTypes(df, "`first#name` VARCHAR(123), city CHAR(20)", expected2)
+
+    withSQLConf(SQLConf.CASE_SENSITIVE.key -> "false") {
+      // should still respect the original column names
+      val expected = Map("id" -> "INTEGER", "first#name" -> "VARCHAR(123)", "city" -> "CLOB")
+      testUserSpecifiedColTypes(df, "`FiRsT#NaMe` VARCHAR(123)", expected)
+    }
+
+    withSQLConf(SQLConf.CASE_SENSITIVE.key -> "true") {
+      val schema = StructType(
+        StructField("id", IntegerType) ::
+          StructField("First#Name", StringType) ::
+          StructField("city", StringType) :: Nil)
+      val df = spark.createDataFrame(sparkContext.parallelize(data), schema)
+      val expected = Map("id" -> "INTEGER", "First#Name" -> "VARCHAR(123)", "city" -> "CLOB")
+      testUserSpecifiedColTypes(df, "`First#Name` VARCHAR(123)", expected)
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("SPARK-10849: jdbc CreateTableColumnTypes option with invalid data type") {
+    val df = spark.createDataFrame(sparkContext.parallelize(arr2x2), schema2)
+    val msg = intercept[ParseException] {
+      df.write.mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+        .option("createTableColumnTypes", "name CLOB(2000)")
+        .jdbc(url1, "TEST.USERDBTYPETEST", properties)
+    }.getMessage()
+    assert(msg.contains("DataType clob(2000) is not supported."))
+  }
+
+  test("SPARK-10849: jdbc CreateTableColumnTypes option with invalid syntax") {
+    val df = spark.createDataFrame(sparkContext.parallelize(arr2x2), schema2)
+    val msg = intercept[ParseException] {
+      df.write.mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+        .option("createTableColumnTypes", "`name char(20)") // incorrectly quoted column
+        .jdbc(url1, "TEST.USERDBTYPETEST", properties)
+    }.getMessage()
+    assert(msg.contains("no viable alternative at input"))
+  }
+
+  test("SPARK-10849: jdbc CreateTableColumnTypes duplicate columns") {
+    withSQLConf(SQLConf.CASE_SENSITIVE.key -> "false") {
+      val df = spark.createDataFrame(sparkContext.parallelize(arr2x2), schema2)
+      val msg = intercept[AnalysisException] {
+        df.write.mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+          .option("createTableColumnTypes", "name CHAR(20), id int, NaMe VARCHAR(100)")
+          .jdbc(url1, "TEST.USERDBTYPETEST", properties)
+      }.getMessage()
+      assert(msg.contains(
+        "Found duplicate column(s) in createTableColumnTypes option value: name, NaMe"))
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("SPARK-10849: jdbc CreateTableColumnTypes invalid columns") {
+    // schema2 has the column "id" and "name"
+    val df = spark.createDataFrame(sparkContext.parallelize(arr2x2), schema2)
+
+    withSQLConf(SQLConf.CASE_SENSITIVE.key -> "false") {
+      val msg = intercept[AnalysisException] {
+        df.write.mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+          .option("createTableColumnTypes", "firstName CHAR(20), id int")
+          .jdbc(url1, "TEST.USERDBTYPETEST", properties)
+      }.getMessage()
+      assert(msg.contains("createTableColumnTypes option column firstName not found in " +
+        "schema struct<name:string,id:int>"))
+    }
+
+    withSQLConf(SQLConf.CASE_SENSITIVE.key -> "true") {
+      val msg = intercept[AnalysisException] {
+        df.write.mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+          .option("createTableColumnTypes", "id int, Name VARCHAR(100)")
+          .jdbc(url1, "TEST.USERDBTYPETEST", properties)
+      }.getMessage()
+      assert(msg.contains("createTableColumnTypes option column Name not found in " +
+        "schema struct<name:string,id:int>"))
+    }
+  }
 }