diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/commands.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/commands.scala
index 698c625d617fc..d82e54e57564c 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/commands.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/commands.scala
@@ -66,6 +66,8 @@ case class ExecutedCommandExec(cmd: RunnableCommand) extends SparkPlan {
 
   override def executeCollect(): Array[InternalRow] = sideEffectResult.toArray
 
+  override def executeToIterator: Iterator[InternalRow] = sideEffectResult.toIterator
+
   override def executeTake(limit: Int): Array[InternalRow] = sideEffectResult.take(limit).toArray
 
   protected override def doExecute(): RDD[InternalRow] = {
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/DDLSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/DDLSuite.scala
index d593bfb4ce19a..0ce5cba871e85 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/DDLSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/DDLSuite.scala
@@ -1763,4 +1763,11 @@ class DDLSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext with BeforeAndAfterEach {
       }
     }
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-18009 calling toLocalIterator on commands") {
+    import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
+    val df = sql("show databases")
+    val rows: Seq[Row] = df.toLocalIterator().asScala.toSeq
+    assert(rows.length > 0)
+  }
 }