diff --git a/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkExecuteStatementOperation.scala b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkExecuteStatementOperation.scala
index e555ebd623f7257d4b3898758bf68822c436de43..aeabd6a15881dcfe3ab3098c36c8041daa2b13d8 100644
--- a/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkExecuteStatementOperation.scala
+++ b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkExecuteStatementOperation.scala
@@ -56,14 +56,11 @@ private[hive] class SparkExecuteStatementOperation(
   private var statementId: String = _
 
   private lazy val resultSchema: TableSchema = {
-    if (result == null || result.queryExecution.analyzed.output.size == 0) {
+    if (result == null || result.schema.isEmpty) {
       new TableSchema(Arrays.asList(new FieldSchema("Result", "string", "")))
     } else {
-      logInfo(s"Result Schema: ${result.queryExecution.analyzed.output}")
-      val schema = result.queryExecution.analyzed.output.map { attr =>
-        new FieldSchema(attr.name, attr.dataType.catalogString, "")
-      }
-      new TableSchema(schema.asJava)
+      logInfo(s"Result Schema: ${result.schema}")
+      SparkExecuteStatementOperation.getTableSchema(result.schema)
     }
   }
 
@@ -282,3 +279,13 @@ private[hive] class SparkExecuteStatementOperation(
     }
   }
 }
+
+object SparkExecuteStatementOperation {
+  def getTableSchema(structType: StructType): TableSchema = {
+    val schema = structType.map { field =>
+      val attrTypeString = if (field.dataType == NullType) "void" else field.dataType.catalogString
+      new FieldSchema(field.name, attrTypeString, "")
+    }
+    new TableSchema(schema.asJava)
+  }
+}
diff --git a/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkExecuteStatementOperationSuite.scala b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkExecuteStatementOperationSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..32ded0d254ef82b6de49a9706f0639a23ae4edec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkExecuteStatementOperationSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.thriftserver
+
+import org.apache.spark.SparkFunSuite
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{NullType, StructField, StructType}
+
+class SparkExecuteStatementOperationSuite extends SparkFunSuite {
+  test("SPARK-17112 `select null` via JDBC triggers IllegalArgumentException in ThriftServer") {
+    val field1 = StructField("NULL", NullType)
+    val field2 = StructField("(IF(true, NULL, NULL))", NullType)
+    val tableSchema = StructType(Seq(field1, field2))
+    val columns = SparkExecuteStatementOperation.getTableSchema(tableSchema).getColumnDescriptors()
+    assert(columns.size() == 2)
+    assert(columns.get(0).getType() == org.apache.hive.service.cli.Type.NULL_TYPE)
+    assert(columns.get(1).getType() == org.apache.hive.service.cli.Type.NULL_TYPE)
+  }
+}