diff --git a/src/graph/planner/plan/PlanNode.cpp b/src/graph/planner/plan/PlanNode.cpp
index 95ff8c2f608..00cb736ac00 100644
--- a/src/graph/planner/plan/PlanNode.cpp
+++ b/src/graph/planner/plan/PlanNode.cpp
@@ -339,7 +339,11 @@ void PlanNode::setOutputVar(const std::string& var, const std::vector<std::strin
   DCHECK(outputVarPtr != nullptr);
   auto oldVar = outputVar_->name;
   outputVar_ = outputVarPtr;
-  setColNames(colNames);
+  if (colNames.empty() && !outputVar_->colNames.empty()) {
+    setColNames(outputVar_->colNames);
+  } else {
+    setColNames(colNames);
+  }
   qctx_->symTable()->updateWrittenBy(oldVar, var, this);
 }