2 files changed, 18 insertions, 0 deletions
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 3eecd657e6..819639f300 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
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ package org.apache.spark.unsafe.types;
 import javax.annotation.Nonnull;
 import java.io.Serializable;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.util.Arrays;
 
 import org.apache.spark.unsafe.PlatformDependent;
 import org.apache.spark.unsafe.array.ByteArrayMethods;
@@ -77,6 +78,15 @@ public final class UTF8String implements Comparable<UTF8String>, Serializable {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Creates an UTF8String that contains `length` spaces.
+   */
+  public static UTF8String blankString(int length) {
+    byte[] spaces = new byte[length];
+    Arrays.fill(spaces, (byte) ' ');
+    return fromBytes(spaces);
+  }
+
   protected UTF8String(Object base, long offset, int size) {
     this.base = base;
     this.offset = offset;
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 7d0c49e2fb..6a21c27461 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
@@ -286,4 +286,12 @@ public class UTF8StringSuite {
     assertEquals(
         UTF8String.fromString("世界千世").levenshteinDistance(UTF8String.fromString("千a世b")),4);
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void createBlankString() {
+    assertEquals(fromString(" "), blankString(1));
+    assertEquals(fromString("  "), blankString(2));
+    assertEquals(fromString("   "), blankString(3));
+    assertEquals(fromString(""), blankString(0));
+  }
 }