diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/benchmark/TPCDSQueryBenchmark.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/benchmark/TPCDSQueryBenchmark.scala
index d2d013682cd2..63d118cf857b 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/benchmark/TPCDSQueryBenchmark.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/benchmark/TPCDSQueryBenchmark.scala
@@ -17,8 +17,6 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.sql.execution.benchmark
 
-import java.io.File
-
 import org.apache.spark.SparkConf
 import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.TableIdentifier
@@ -31,7 +29,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.util.Benchmark
 /**
  * Benchmark to measure TPCDS query performance.
  * To run this:
- *  spark-submit --class <this class> --jars <spark sql test jar>
+ *  spark-submit --class <this class> <spark sql test jar> <TPCDS data location>
  */
 object TPCDSQueryBenchmark {
   val conf =
@@ -61,12 +59,10 @@ object TPCDSQueryBenchmark {
   }
 
   def tpcdsAll(dataLocation: String, queries: Seq[String]): Unit = {
-    require(dataLocation.nonEmpty,
-      "please modify the value of dataLocation to point to your local TPCDS data")
     val tableSizes = setupTables(dataLocation)
     queries.foreach { name =>
-      val queryString = fileToString(new File(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader
-        .getResource(s"tpcds/$name.sql").getFile))
+      val queryString = resourceToString(s"tpcds/$name.sql",
+        classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader)
 
       // This is an indirect hack to estimate the size of each query's input by traversing the
       // logical plan and adding up the sizes of all tables that appear in the plan. Note that this
@@ -99,6 +95,7 @@ object TPCDSQueryBenchmark {
   }
 
   def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
+    val benchmarkArgs = new TPCDSQueryBenchmarkArguments(args)
 
     // List of all TPC-DS queries
     val tpcdsQueries = Seq(
@@ -113,12 +110,6 @@ object TPCDSQueryBenchmark {
       "q81", "q82", "q83", "q84", "q85", "q86", "q87", "q88", "q89", "q90",
       "q91", "q92", "q93", "q94", "q95", "q96", "q97", "q98", "q99")
 
-    // In order to run this benchmark, please follow the instructions at
-    // https://github.com/databricks/spark-sql-perf/blob/master/README.md to generate the TPCDS data
-    // locally (preferably with a scale factor of 5 for benchmarking). Thereafter, the value of
-    // dataLocation below needs to be set to the location where the generated data is stored.
-    val dataLocation = ""
-
-    tpcdsAll(dataLocation, queries = tpcdsQueries)
+    tpcdsAll(benchmarkArgs.dataLocation, queries = tpcdsQueries)
   }
 }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/benchmark/TPCDSQueryBenchmarkArguments.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/benchmark/TPCDSQueryBenchmarkArguments.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8edc77bd0ec6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/benchmark/TPCDSQueryBenchmarkArguments.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.execution.benchmark
+
+class TPCDSQueryBenchmarkArguments(val args: Array[String]) {
+  var dataLocation: String = null
+
+  parseArgs(args.toList)
+  validateArguments()
+
+  private def parseArgs(inputArgs: List[String]): Unit = {
+    var args = inputArgs
+
+    while(args.nonEmpty) {
+      args match {
+        case ("--data-location") :: value :: tail =>
+          dataLocation = value
+          args = tail
+
+        case _ =>
+          // scalastyle:off println
+          System.err.println("Unknown/unsupported param " + args)
+          // scalastyle:on println
+          printUsageAndExit(1)
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  private def printUsageAndExit(exitCode: Int): Unit = {
+    // scalastyle:off
+    System.err.println("""
+      |Usage: spark-submit --class <this class> <spark sql test jar> [Options]
+      |Options:
+      |  --data-location      Path to TPCDS data
+      |
+      |------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+      |In order to run this benchmark, please follow the instructions at
+      |https://github.com/databricks/spark-sql-perf/blob/master/README.md
+      |to generate the TPCDS data locally (preferably with a scale factor of 5 for benchmarking).
+      |Thereafter, the value of <TPCDS data location> needs to be set to the location where the generated data is stored.
+      """.stripMargin)
+    // scalastyle:on
+    System.exit(exitCode)
+  }
+
+  private def validateArguments(): Unit = {
+    if (dataLocation == null) {
+      // scalastyle:off println
+      System.err.println("Must specify a data location")
+      // scalastyle:on println
+      printUsageAndExit(-1)
+    }
+  }
+}