diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/functions.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/functions.scala
index 1199cd8df6a99..2c8b82357cc75 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/functions.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/functions.scala
@@ -1272,6 +1272,14 @@ object functions {
    */
   def bitwiseNOT(e: Column): Column = withExpr { BitwiseNot(e.expr) }
 
+  /**
+   * Computes bitwise NOT (~) of a number.
+   *
+   * @group normal_funcs
+   * @since 1.4.0
+   */
+  def bitwiseNOT(columnName: String): Column = bitwiseNOT(Column(columnName))
+
   /**
    * Parses the expression string into the column that it represents, similar to
    * [[Dataset#selectExpr]].
@@ -1301,6 +1309,14 @@ object functions {
    */
   def abs(e: Column): Column = withExpr { Abs(e.expr) }
 
+  /**
+   * Computes the absolute value of a numeric value.
+   *
+   * @group math_funcs
+   * @since 1.3.0
+   */
+  def abs(columnName: String): Column = abs(Column(columnName))
+
   /**
    * @return inverse cosine of `e` in radians, as if computed by `java.lang.Math.acos`
    *
@@ -2293,6 +2309,14 @@ object functions {
    */
   def lower(e: Column): Column = withExpr { Lower(e.expr) }
 
+  /**
+   * Converts a string column to lower case.
+   *
+   * @group string_funcs
+   * @since 1.3.0
+   */
+  def lower(columnName: String): Column = lower(Column(columnName))
+
   /**
    * Computes the Levenshtein distance of the two given string columns.
    * @group string_funcs
@@ -2540,6 +2564,14 @@ object functions {
    */
   def upper(e: Column): Column = withExpr { Upper(e.expr) }
 
+  /**
+   * Converts a string column to upper case.
+   *
+   * @group string_funcs
+   * @since 1.3.0
+   */
+  def upper(columnName: String): Column = upper(Column(columnName))
+
   //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
   // DateTime functions
   //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////