diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
index ab0c4126bcbdd..76b4be930735b 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
@@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ class Dataset[T] private[sql](
    */
   private[sql] def showString(
       _numRows: Int, truncate: Int = 20, vertical: Boolean = false): String = {
-    val numRows = _numRows.max(0)
+    val numRows = _numRows.max(0).min(Int.MaxValue - 1)
     val takeResult = toDF().take(numRows + 1)
     val hasMoreData = takeResult.length > numRows
     val data = takeResult.take(numRows)
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
index 0e2f2e5a193e1..78d768289e9ef 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
@@ -993,6 +993,18 @@ class DataFrameSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext {
     assert(testData.select($"*").showString(0) === expectedAnswer)
   }
 
+  test("showString(Int.MaxValue)") {
+    val df = Seq((1, 2), (3, 4)).toDF("a", "b")
+    val expectedAnswer = """+---+---+
+                           ||  a|  b|
+                           |+---+---+
+                           ||  1|  2|
+                           ||  3|  4|
+                           |+---+---+
+                           |""".stripMargin
+    assert(df.showString(Int.MaxValue) === expectedAnswer)
+  }
+
   test("showString(0), vertical = true") {
     val expectedAnswer = "(0 rows)\n"
     assert(testData.select($"*").showString(0, vertical = true) === expectedAnswer)