diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/basicPhysicalOperators.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/basicPhysicalOperators.scala
index d876688a8aabd09d832b081bfffee0e61e43677f..66a8e044ab8797323554662c3f6518d335fb3ba6 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/basicPhysicalOperators.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/basicPhysicalOperators.scala
@@ -628,13 +628,7 @@ case class SubqueryExec(name: String, child: SparkPlan) extends UnaryExecNode {
         val dataSize = rows.map(_.asInstanceOf[UnsafeRow].getSizeInBytes.toLong).sum
         longMetric("dataSize") += dataSize
 
-        // There are some cases we don't care about the metrics and call `SparkPlan.doExecute`
-        // directly without setting an execution id. We should be tolerant to it.
-        if (executionId != null) {
-          sparkContext.listenerBus.post(SparkListenerDriverAccumUpdates(
-            executionId.toLong, metrics.values.map(m => m.id -> m.value).toSeq))
-        }
-
+        SQLMetrics.postDriverMetricUpdates(sparkContext, executionId, metrics.values.toSeq)
         rows
       }
     }(SubqueryExec.executionContext)
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/exchange/BroadcastExchangeExec.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/exchange/BroadcastExchangeExec.scala
index 7be5d31d4a7658f5aa4ad995fa6ad49e91e2a08f..efcaca9338ad63ed7352cc0e41ff190d6583d987 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/exchange/BroadcastExchangeExec.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/exchange/BroadcastExchangeExec.scala
@@ -97,13 +97,7 @@ case class BroadcastExchangeExec(
           val broadcasted = sparkContext.broadcast(relation)
           longMetric("broadcastTime") += (System.nanoTime() - beforeBroadcast) / 1000000
 
-          // There are some cases we don't care about the metrics and call `SparkPlan.doExecute`
-          // directly without setting an execution id. We should be tolerant to it.
-          if (executionId != null) {
-            sparkContext.listenerBus.post(SparkListenerDriverAccumUpdates(
-              executionId.toLong, metrics.values.map(m => m.id -> m.value).toSeq))
-          }
-
+          SQLMetrics.postDriverMetricUpdates(sparkContext, executionId, metrics.values.toSeq)
           broadcasted
         } catch {
           case oe: OutOfMemoryError =>
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/metric/SQLMetrics.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/metric/SQLMetrics.scala
index dbc27d8b237f3e72d561ad4211ae30e64dfa8470..ef982a4ebd10d14461b77bb0aac97e02d7c12c1c 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/metric/SQLMetrics.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/metric/SQLMetrics.scala
@@ -22,9 +22,15 @@ import java.util.Locale
 
 import org.apache.spark.SparkContext
 import org.apache.spark.scheduler.AccumulableInfo
+import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.ui.SparkListenerDriverAccumUpdates
 import org.apache.spark.util.{AccumulatorContext, AccumulatorV2, Utils}
 
 
+/**
+ * A metric used in a SQL query plan. This is implemented as an [[AccumulatorV2]]. Updates on
+ * the executor side are automatically propagated and shown in the SQL UI through metrics. Updates
+ * on the driver side must be explicitly posted using [[SQLMetrics.postDriverMetricUpdates()]].
+ */
 class SQLMetric(val metricType: String, initValue: Long = 0L) extends AccumulatorV2[Long, Long] {
   // This is a workaround for SPARK-11013.
   // We may use -1 as initial value of the accumulator, if the accumulator is valid, we will
@@ -126,4 +132,18 @@ object SQLMetrics {
       s"\n$sum ($min, $med, $max)"
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Updates metrics based on the driver side value. This is useful for certain metrics that
+   * are only updated on the driver, e.g. subquery execution time, or number of files.
+   */
+  def postDriverMetricUpdates(
+      sc: SparkContext, executionId: String, metrics: Seq[SQLMetric]): Unit = {
+    // There are some cases we don't care about the metrics and call `SparkPlan.doExecute`
+    // directly without setting an execution id. We should be tolerant to it.
+    if (executionId != null) {
+      sc.listenerBus.post(
+        SparkListenerDriverAccumUpdates(executionId.toLong, metrics.map(m => m.id -> m.value)))
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/ui/SQLListener.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/ui/SQLListener.scala
index 12d3bc9281f354a9846109ea9438f8918c48dea0..b4a91230a0012cd34657f30766971f0c27947b78 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/ui/SQLListener.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/ui/SQLListener.scala
@@ -47,6 +47,13 @@ case class SparkListenerSQLExecutionStart(
 case class SparkListenerSQLExecutionEnd(executionId: Long, time: Long)
   extends SparkListenerEvent
 
+/**
+ * A message used to update SQL metric value for driver-side updates (which doesn't get reflected
+ * automatically).
+ *
+ * @param executionId The execution id for a query, so we can find the query plan.
+ * @param accumUpdates Map from accumulator id to the metric value (metrics are always 64-bit ints).
+ */
 @DeveloperApi
 case class SparkListenerDriverAccumUpdates(
     executionId: Long,
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/ui/SQLListenerSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/ui/SQLListenerSuite.scala
index e41c00ecec2716ef56c34584112e869966f627d9..e6cd41e4facf1d0b40ccc791735b1a82ee7deca4 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/ui/SQLListenerSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/ui/SQLListenerSuite.scala
@@ -477,9 +477,11 @@ private case class MyPlan(sc: SparkContext, expectedValue: Long) extends LeafExe
 
   override def doExecute(): RDD[InternalRow] = {
     longMetric("dummy") += expectedValue
-    sc.listenerBus.post(SparkListenerDriverAccumUpdates(
-      sc.getLocalProperty(SQLExecution.EXECUTION_ID_KEY).toLong,
-      metrics.values.map(m => m.id -> m.value).toSeq))
+
+    SQLMetrics.postDriverMetricUpdates(
+      sc,
+      sc.getLocalProperty(SQLExecution.EXECUTION_ID_KEY),
+      metrics.values.toSeq)
     sc.emptyRDD
   }
 }