diff --git a/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/schema/SchemaMergingUtils.scala b/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/schema/SchemaMergingUtils.scala
index fd7172603c0..6cda18b7e78 100644
--- a/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/schema/SchemaMergingUtils.scala
+++ b/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/schema/SchemaMergingUtils.scala
@@ -127,6 +127,9 @@ object SchemaMergingUtils {
   }
 
   /**
+   * A variant of [[mergeDataTypes]] with common default values and enforce struct type
+   * as inputs for Delta table operation.
+   *
    * Check whether we can write to the Delta table, which has `tableSchema`, using a query that has
    * `dataSchema`. Our rules are that:
    *   - `dataSchema` may be missing columns or have additional columns
@@ -144,9 +147,29 @@ object SchemaMergingUtils {
    *
    * Schema merging occurs in a case insensitive manner. Hence, column names that only differ
    * by case are not accepted in the `dataSchema`.
-   *
-   * @param tableSchema The current schema of the table.
-   * @param dataSchema The schema of the new data being written.
+   */
+  def mergeSchemas(
+      tableSchema: StructType,
+      dataSchema: StructType,
+      allowImplicitConversions: Boolean = false,
+      keepExistingType: Boolean = false,
+      allowTypeWidening: Boolean = false,
+      caseSensitive: Boolean = false): StructType = {
+    checkColumnNameDuplication(dataSchema, "in the data to save", caseSensitive)
+    mergeDataTypes(
+      tableSchema,
+      dataSchema,
+      allowImplicitConversions,
+      keepExistingType,
+      allowTypeWidening,
+      caseSensitive,
+      allowOverride = false
+    ).asInstanceOf[StructType]
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @param current The current data type.
+   * @param update The data type of the new data being written.
    * @param allowImplicitConversions Whether to allow Spark SQL implicit conversions. By default,
    *                                 we merge according to Parquet write compatibility - for
    *                                 example, an integer type data field will throw when merged to a
@@ -157,15 +180,16 @@ object SchemaMergingUtils {
    * @param keepExistingType Whether to keep existing types instead of trying to merge types.
    * @param caseSensitive Whether we should keep field mapping case-sensitively.
    *                      This should default to false for Delta, which is case insensitive.
+   * @param allowOverride Whether to let incoming type override the existing type if unmatched.
    */
-  def mergeSchemas(
-      tableSchema: StructType,
-      dataSchema: StructType,
-      allowImplicitConversions: Boolean = false,
-      keepExistingType: Boolean = false,
-      allowTypeWidening: Boolean = false,
-      caseSensitive: Boolean = false): StructType = {
-    checkColumnNameDuplication(dataSchema, "in the data to save", caseSensitive)
+  def mergeDataTypes(
+      current: DataType,
+      update: DataType,
+      allowImplicitConversions: Boolean,
+      keepExistingType: Boolean,
+      allowTypeWidening: Boolean,
+      caseSensitive: Boolean,
+      allowOverride: Boolean): DataType = {
     def merge(current: DataType, update: DataType): DataType = {
       (current, update) match {
         case (StructType(currentFields), StructType(updateFields)) =>
@@ -201,19 +225,20 @@ object SchemaMergingUtils {
           // Create the merged struct, the new fields are appended at the end of the struct.
           StructType(updatedCurrentFields ++ newFields)
         case (ArrayType(currentElementType, currentContainsNull),
-              ArrayType(updateElementType, _)) =>
+        ArrayType(updateElementType, _)) =>
           ArrayType(
             merge(currentElementType, updateElementType),
             currentContainsNull)
         case (MapType(currentKeyType, currentElementType, currentContainsNull),
-              MapType(updateKeyType, updateElementType, _)) =>
+        MapType(updateKeyType, updateElementType, _)) =>
           MapType(
             merge(currentKeyType, updateKeyType),
             merge(currentElementType, updateElementType),
             currentContainsNull)
 
         // Simply keeps the existing type for primitive types
-        case (current, update) if keepExistingType => current
+        case (current, _) if keepExistingType => current
+        case (_, update) if allowOverride => update
 
         case (current: AtomicType, update: AtomicType) if allowTypeWidening &&
           TypeWidening.isTypeChangeSupportedForSchemaEvolution(current, update) => update
@@ -221,11 +246,11 @@ object SchemaMergingUtils {
         // If implicit conversions are allowed, that means we can use any valid implicit cast to
         // perform the merge.
         case (current, update)
-            if allowImplicitConversions && typeForImplicitCast(update, current).isDefined =>
+          if allowImplicitConversions && typeForImplicitCast(update, current).isDefined =>
           typeForImplicitCast(update, current).get
 
         case (DecimalType.Fixed(leftPrecision, leftScale),
-              DecimalType.Fixed(rightPrecision, rightScale)) =>
+        DecimalType.Fixed(rightPrecision, rightScale)) =>
           if ((leftPrecision == rightPrecision) && (leftScale == rightScale)) {
             current
           } else if ((leftPrecision != rightPrecision) && (leftScale != rightScale)) {
@@ -267,7 +292,7 @@ object SchemaMergingUtils {
             messageParameters = Array(current.toString, update.toString))
       }
     }
-    merge(tableSchema, dataSchema).asInstanceOf[StructType]
+    merge(current, update)
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/schema/SchemaUtilsSuite.scala b/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/schema/SchemaUtilsSuite.scala
index a8fbfd51ff8..8a58fdd160d 100644
--- a/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/schema/SchemaUtilsSuite.scala
+++ b/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/delta/schema/SchemaUtilsSuite.scala
@@ -2428,6 +2428,51 @@ class SchemaUtilsSuite extends QueryTest
     testParquetUpcast()
 
   }
+
+  test("schema merging non struct root type") {
+    // Array root type
+    val base1 = ArrayType(new StructType().add("a", IntegerType))
+    val update1 = ArrayType(new StructType().add("b", IntegerType))
+
+    assert(mergeDataTypes(
+      base1, update1, false, false, false, false, allowOverride = false) ===
+      ArrayType(new StructType().add("a", IntegerType).add("b", IntegerType)))
+
+    // Map root type
+    val base2 = MapType(
+      new StructType().add("a", IntegerType),
+      new StructType().add("b", IntegerType)
+    )
+    val update2 = MapType(
+      new StructType().add("b", IntegerType),
+      new StructType().add("c", IntegerType)
+    )
+
+    assert(mergeDataTypes(
+      base2, update2, false, false, false, false, allowOverride = false) ===
+      MapType(
+        new StructType().add("a", IntegerType).add("b", IntegerType),
+        new StructType().add("b", IntegerType).add("c", IntegerType)
+      ))
+  }
+
+  test("schema merging allow override") {
+    // override root type
+    val base1 = new StructType().add("a", IntegerType)
+    val update1 = ArrayType(LongType)
+
+    assert(mergeDataTypes(
+      base1, update1, false, false, false, false, allowOverride = true) === ArrayType(LongType))
+
+    // override nested type
+    val base2 = ArrayType(new StructType().add("a", IntegerType).add("b", StringType))
+    val update2 = ArrayType(new StructType().add("a", MapType(StringType, StringType)))
+
+    assert(mergeDataTypes(
+      base2, update2, false, false, false, false, allowOverride = true) ===
+      ArrayType(new StructType().add("a", MapType(StringType, StringType)).add("b", StringType)))
+  }
+
   ////////////////////////////
   // transformColumns
   ////////////////////////////