diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/FunctionRegistry.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/FunctionRegistry.scala
index ba89a5c8d1372292f92fcf87737638a2ba3c90c6..39875d7f216b2ddfe01a30da2e375821c15b70b5 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/FunctionRegistry.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/FunctionRegistry.scala
@@ -89,14 +89,10 @@ object FunctionRegistry {
     expression[CreateArray]("array"),
     expression[Coalesce]("coalesce"),
     expression[Explode]("explode"),
-    expression[Lower]("lower"),
-    expression[Substring]("substr"),
-    expression[Substring]("substring"),
     expression[Rand]("rand"),
     expression[Randn]("randn"),
     expression[CreateStruct]("struct"),
     expression[Sqrt]("sqrt"),
-    expression[Upper]("upper"),
 
     // Math functions
     expression[Acos]("acos"),
@@ -132,7 +128,14 @@ object FunctionRegistry {
     expression[Last]("last"),
     expression[Max]("max"),
     expression[Min]("min"),
-    expression[Sum]("sum")
+    expression[Sum]("sum"),
+
+    // string functions
+    expression[Lower]("lower"),
+    expression[StringLength]("length"),
+    expression[Substring]("substr"),
+    expression[Substring]("substring"),
+    expression[Upper]("upper")
   )
 
   val builtin: FunctionRegistry = {
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/Expression.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/Expression.scala
index 63dd5f9854aedef8c2cca2d264cc02170da3fffb..8c1e4d74f9df14c593154edc406cc7412f1266a6 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/Expression.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/Expression.scala
@@ -212,6 +212,9 @@ abstract class LeafExpression extends Expression with trees.LeafNode[Expression]
 abstract class UnaryExpression extends Expression with trees.UnaryNode[Expression] {
   self: Product =>
 
+  override def foldable: Boolean = child.foldable
+  override def nullable: Boolean = child.nullable
+
   /**
    * Called by unary expressions to generate a code block that returns null if its parent returns
    * null, and if not not null, use `f` to generate the expression.
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 856f56488c7a5c72e3fc48c565da32b8b069e820..345038323ddc5fafca81fb47eb4f81724deffdf8 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
@@ -294,3 +294,24 @@ object Substring {
     apply(str, pos, Literal(Integer.MAX_VALUE))
   }
 }
+
+/**
+ * A function that return the length of the given string expression.
+ */
+case class StringLength(child: Expression) extends UnaryExpression with ExpectsInputTypes {
+  override def dataType: DataType = IntegerType
+  override def expectedChildTypes: Seq[DataType] = Seq(StringType)
+
+  override def eval(input: Row): Any = {
+    val string = child.eval(input)
+    if (string == null) null else string.asInstanceOf[UTF8String].length
+  }
+
+  override def toString: String = s"length($child)"
+
+  override def genCode(ctx: CodeGenContext, ev: GeneratedExpressionCode): String = {
+    defineCodeGen(ctx, ev, c => s"($c).length()")
+  }
+}
+
+
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/StringFunctionsSuite.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/StringFunctionsSuite.scala
index 2e81296c4e623a3d4b7b3e684f2b82a45a1a0256..d363e631540d83f6c3bc5983422e9d6f69858401 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/StringFunctionsSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/StringFunctionsSuite.scala
@@ -215,4 +215,16 @@ class StringFunctionsSuite extends SparkFunSuite with ExpressionEvalHelper {
       evaluate("abbbbc" rlike regEx, create_row("**"))
     }
   }
+
+  test("length for string") {
+    val regEx = 'a.string.at(0)
+    checkEvaluation(StringLength(Literal("abc")), 3, create_row("abdef"))
+    checkEvaluation(StringLength(regEx), 5, create_row("abdef"))
+    checkEvaluation(StringLength(regEx), 0, create_row(""))
+    checkEvaluation(StringLength(regEx), null, create_row(null))
+    // TODO currently bug in codegen, let's temporally disable this
+    // checkEvaluation(StringLength(Literal.create(null, StringType)), null, create_row("abdef"))
+  }
+
+
 }
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 b3fc1e6cd987e2f2a32fb4cc9e5387e98e501166..083f6b6bceee8a011363c52516431c973a639ebf 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
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
  * @groupname normal_funcs Non-aggregate functions
  * @groupname math_funcs Math functions
  * @groupname window_funcs Window functions
+ * @groupname string_funcs String functions
  * @groupname Ungrouped Support functions for DataFrames.
  * @since 1.3.0
  */
@@ -1317,6 +1318,23 @@ object functions {
    */
   def toRadians(columnName: String): Column = toRadians(Column(columnName))
 
+  //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+  // String functions
+  //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+  /**
+   * Computes the length of a given string value
+   * @group string_funcs
+   * @since 1.5.0
+   */
+  def strlen(e: Column): Column = StringLength(e.expr)
+
+  /**
+   * Computes the length of a given string column
+   * @group string_funcs
+   * @since 1.5.0
+   */
+  def strlen(columnName: String): Column = strlen(Column(columnName))
 
   //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
   //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameFunctionsSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameFunctionsSuite.scala
index b93ad39f5da45faca057a204c4c9d53131800977..171a2151e67aef07d4dd245eace80dea6ff31b28 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameFunctionsSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameFunctionsSuite.scala
@@ -109,4 +109,24 @@ class DataFrameFunctionsSuite extends QueryTest {
       testData2.select(bitwiseNOT($"a")),
       testData2.collect().toSeq.map(r => Row(~r.getInt(0))))
   }
+
+  test("length") {
+    checkAnswer(
+      nullStrings.select(strlen($"s"), strlen("s")),
+      nullStrings.collect().toSeq.map { r =>
+        val v = r.getString(1)
+        val l = if (v == null) null else v.length
+        Row(l, l)
+      })
+
+    checkAnswer(
+      nullStrings.selectExpr("length(s)"),
+      nullStrings.collect().toSeq.map { r =>
+        val v = r.getString(1)
+        val l = if (v == null) null else v.length
+        Row(l)
+      })
+  }
+
+
 }