diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/complexTypeExtractors.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/complexTypeExtractors.scala
index c5ed173eeb9dd..91c275b1aa1c7 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/complexTypeExtractors.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/expressions/complexTypeExtractors.scala
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ case class GetArrayItem(child: Expression, ordinal: Expression)
     nullSafeCodeGen(ctx, ev, (eval1, eval2) => {
       s"""
         final int index = (int) $eval2;
-        if (index >= $eval1.numElements() || index < 0) {
+        if (index >= $eval1.numElements() || index < 0 || $eval1.isNullAt(index)) {
           ${ev.isNull} = true;
         } else {
           ${ev.value} = ${ctx.getValue(eval1, dataType, "index")};
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameComplexTypeSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameComplexTypeSuite.scala
index 09f7b507670c9..b76fc73b7fa0b 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameComplexTypeSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameComplexTypeSuite.scala
@@ -43,4 +43,13 @@ class DataFrameComplexTypeSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext {
     val df = sparkContext.parallelize(Seq((1, 1))).toDF("a", "b")
     df.select(array($"a").as("s")).select(f(expr("s[0]"))).collect()
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-12477 accessing null element in array field") {
+    val df = sparkContext.parallelize(Seq((Seq("val1", null, "val2"),
+      Seq(Some(1), None, Some(2))))).toDF("s", "i")
+    val nullStringRow = df.selectExpr("s[1]").collect()(0)
+    assert(nullStringRow == org.apache.spark.sql.Row(null))
+    val nullIntRow = df.selectExpr("i[1]").collect()(0)
+    assert(nullIntRow == org.apache.spark.sql.Row(null))
+  }
 }