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 bd3411d8d7..1e85551990 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
@@ -2491,6 +2491,16 @@ class Dataset[T] private[sql](
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns a new Dataset by updating an existing column with metadata.
+   *
+   * @group untypedrel
+   * @since 3.3.0
+   */
+  def withMetadata(columnName: String, metadata: Metadata): DataFrame = {
+    withColumn(columnName, col(columnName), metadata)
+  }
+
   /**
    * Returns a new Dataset with a column dropped. This is a no-op if schema doesn't contain
    * column name.
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 bf161a1080..54fb90aa76 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
@@ -702,6 +702,18 @@ class DataFrameSuite extends QueryTest
       "The size of column names: 2 isn't equal to the size of metadata elements: 1"))
   }
 
+  test("SPARK-36642: withMetadata: replace metadata of a column") {
+    val metadata = new MetadataBuilder().putLong("key", 1L).build()
+    val df1 = sparkContext.parallelize(Array(1, 2, 3)).toDF("x")
+    val df2 = df1.withMetadata("x", metadata)
+    assert(df2.schema(0).metadata === metadata)
+
+    val err = intercept[AnalysisException] {
+      df1.withMetadata("x1", metadata)
+    }
+    assert(err.getMessage.contains("Cannot resolve column name"))
+  }
+
   test("replace column using withColumn") {
     val df2 = sparkContext.parallelize(Array(1, 2, 3)).toDF("x")
     val df3 = df2.withColumn("x", df2("x") + 1)