diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/stringOperations.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/stringOperations.scala
index a5682428b3d40d219ac87904394e79aa0cb7c5c3..5c1908d55576a4bd0985bbf50ba78cff18cc69e1 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/stringOperations.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/stringOperations.scala
@@ -615,7 +615,7 @@ case class StringSpace(child: Expression)
  * Splits str around pat (pattern is a regular expression).
  */
 case class StringSplit(str: Expression, pattern: Expression)
-  extends BinaryExpression with ImplicitCastInputTypes with CodegenFallback {
+  extends BinaryExpression with ImplicitCastInputTypes {
 
   override def left: Expression = str
   override def right: Expression = pattern
@@ -623,9 +623,13 @@ case class StringSplit(str: Expression, pattern: Expression)
   override def inputTypes: Seq[DataType] = Seq(StringType, StringType)
 
   override def nullSafeEval(string: Any, regex: Any): Any = {
-    val splits =
-      string.asInstanceOf[UTF8String].toString.split(regex.asInstanceOf[UTF8String].toString, -1)
-    splits.toSeq.map(UTF8String.fromString)
+    string.asInstanceOf[UTF8String].split(regex.asInstanceOf[UTF8String], -1).toSeq
+  }
+
+  override def genCode(ctx: CodeGenContext, ev: GeneratedExpressionCode): String = {
+    nullSafeCodeGen(ctx, ev, (str, pattern) =>
+      s"""${ev.primitive} = scala.collection.JavaConversions.asScalaBuffer(
+            java.util.Arrays.asList($str.split($pattern, -1)));""")
   }
 
   override def prettyName: String = "split"
diff --git a/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/types/UTF8String.java b/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/types/UTF8String.java
index fc63fe537d226cc046f147fdcd03abd2b27d33f7..ed354f7f877f11d67570d9fd838f90b857f037b0 100644
--- a/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/types/UTF8String.java
+++ b/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/types/UTF8String.java
@@ -487,6 +487,15 @@ public final class UTF8String implements Comparable<UTF8String>, Serializable {
     return fromBytes(result);
   }
 
+  public UTF8String[] split(UTF8String pattern, int limit) {
+    String[] splits = toString().split(pattern.toString(), limit);
+    UTF8String[] res = new UTF8String[splits.length];
+    for (int i = 0; i < res.length; i++) {
+      res[i] = fromString(splits[i]);
+    }
+    return res;
+  }
+
   @Override
   public String toString() {
     try {
diff --git a/unsafe/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/types/UTF8StringSuite.java b/unsafe/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/types/UTF8StringSuite.java
index d730b1d1384f568d4ec2454423d67a87c134710a..1f5572c509bdb65509b8b4bce9058910a0eaa6d5 100644
--- a/unsafe/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/types/UTF8StringSuite.java
+++ b/unsafe/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/types/UTF8StringSuite.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.spark.unsafe.types;
 
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.util.Arrays;
 
 import org.junit.Test;
 
@@ -270,6 +271,16 @@ public class UTF8StringSuite {
       fromString("数据砖头孙行者孙行者孙行"),
       fromString("数据砖头").rpad(12, fromString("孙行者")));
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void split() {
+    assertTrue(Arrays.equals(fromString("ab,def,ghi").split(fromString(","), -1),
+      new UTF8String[]{fromString("ab"), fromString("def"), fromString("ghi")}));
+    assertTrue(Arrays.equals(fromString("ab,def,ghi").split(fromString(","), 2),
+      new UTF8String[]{fromString("ab"), fromString("def,ghi")}));
+    assertTrue(Arrays.equals(fromString("ab,def,ghi").split(fromString(","), 2),
+      new UTF8String[]{fromString("ab"), fromString("def,ghi")}));
+  }
   
   @Test
   public void levenshteinDistance() {