diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonRDD.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonRDD.scala
index a3d2a1c7a51f8..1c0b03c684f10 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonRDD.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonRDD.scala
@@ -109,7 +109,9 @@ private[sql] object JsonRDD extends Logging {
         val newType = dataType match {
           case NullType => StringType
           case ArrayType(NullType, containsNull) => ArrayType(StringType, containsNull)
-          case struct: StructType => nullTypeToStringType(struct)
+          case ArrayType(struct: StructType, containsNull) =>
+            ArrayType(nullTypeToStringType(struct), containsNull)
+          case struct: StructType =>nullTypeToStringType(struct)
           case other: DataType => other
         }
         StructField(fieldName, newType, nullable)
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonSuite.scala
index 75c0589eb208e..78e32b967792e 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonSuite.scala
@@ -213,7 +213,8 @@ class JsonSuite extends QueryTest {
       StructField("arrayOfStruct", ArrayType(
         StructType(
           StructField("field1", BooleanType, true) ::
-          StructField("field2", StringType, true) :: Nil)), true) ::
+          StructField("field2", StringType, true) ::
+          StructField("field3", StringType, true) :: Nil)), true) ::
       StructField("struct", StructType(
       StructField("field1", BooleanType, true) ::
       StructField("field2", DecimalType, true) :: Nil), true) ::
@@ -264,7 +265,9 @@ class JsonSuite extends QueryTest {
     // Access elements of an array of structs.
     checkAnswer(
       sql("select arrayOfStruct[0], arrayOfStruct[1], arrayOfStruct[2] from jsonTable"),
-      (true :: "str1" :: Nil, false :: null :: Nil, null) :: Nil
+      (true :: "str1" :: null :: Nil,
+      false :: null :: null :: Nil,
+      null :: null :: null :: Nil) :: Nil
     )
 
     // Access a struct and fields inside of it.
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/TestJsonData.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/TestJsonData.scala
index d0180f3754f22..a88310b5f1b46 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/TestJsonData.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/TestJsonData.scala
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ object TestJsonData {
           "arrayOfDouble":[1.2, 1.7976931348623157E308, 4.9E-324, 2.2250738585072014E-308],
           "arrayOfBoolean":[true, false, true],
           "arrayOfNull":[null, null, null, null],
-          "arrayOfStruct":[{"field1": true, "field2": "str1"}, {"field1": false}],
+          "arrayOfStruct":[{"field1": true, "field2": "str1"}, {"field1": false}, {"field3": null}],
           "arrayOfArray1":[[1, 2, 3], ["str1", "str2"]],
           "arrayOfArray2":[[1, 2, 3], [1.1, 2.1, 3.1]]
          }"""  :: Nil)