diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/preprocessing/OneHotEncoder.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/preprocessing/OneHotEncoder.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..b6c1ccc6ee261
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/preprocessing/OneHotEncoder.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,141 @@
+/*
+ * 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.mllib.preprocessing
+
+import scala.collection.mutable
+import scala.reflect.ClassTag
+
+import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
+
+/**
+ * A utility for encoding categorical variables as numeric variables. The resulting vectors
+ * contain a component for each value that the variable can take. The component corresponding
+ * to the value that the variable takes is set to 1 and the components corresponding to all other
+ * categories are set to 0 - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-hot]].
+ *
+ * The utility handles input vectors with mixed categorical and numeric variables by accepting a
+ * list of feature indices that are categorical and only transforming those.
+ *
+ * The utility can transform vectors such as:
+ * {{{
+ *   (1.7, "apple", 2.0)
+ *   (4.9, "banana", 5.6)
+ *   (8.0, "pear", 6.0)
+ * }}}
+ *
+ * Into:
+ * {{{
+ *   (1.7, 1, 0, 0, 2.0)
+ *   (4.9, 0, 1, 0, 5.6)
+ *   (8.0, 0, 0, 1, 6.0)
+ * }}}
+ *
+ * An example usage is:
+ *
+ * {{{
+ *  val categoricalFields = Array(0, 7, 21)
+ *  val categories = OneHotEncoder.categories(rdd, categoricalFields)
+ *  val encoded = OneHotEncoder.encode(rdd, categories)
+ * }}}
+ */
+object OneHotEncoder {
+
+  /**
+   * Given a dataset and the set of columns which are categorical variables, returns a structure
+   * that, for each field, describes the values that are present for in the dataset. The structure
+   * is meant to be used as input to the encode method.
+   */
+  def categories[T](rdd: RDD[Array[T]], catFields: Seq[Int]): Array[(Int, Map[T, Int])] = {
+    val categoriesArr = new Array[mutable.Set[T]](catFields.length)
+    for (i <- 0 until catFields.length) {
+      categoriesArr(i) = new mutable.HashSet[T]()
+    }
+
+    val categories = rdd.aggregate(categoriesArr)(mergeElement(catFields), mergeSets)
+
+    val catMaps = new Array[(Int, Map[T, Int])](catFields.length)
+    for (i <- 0 until catFields.length) {
+      catMaps(i) = (catFields(i), categories(i).zipWithIndex.toMap)
+    }
+
+    catMaps
+  }
+
+  private def mergeElement[T](catFields: Seq[Int])(a: Array[mutable.Set[T]], b: Array[T]):
+      Array[mutable.Set[T]] = {
+    var i = 0
+    while (i < catFields.length) {
+      a(i) += b(catFields(i))
+      i += 1
+    }
+    a
+  }
+
+  private def mergeSets[T](a: Array[mutable.Set[T]], b: Array[mutable.Set[T]]):
+      Array[mutable.Set[T]] = {
+    var i = 0
+    while (i < a.length) {
+      a(i) ++= b(i)
+      i += 1
+    }
+    a
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * OneHot encodes the given RDD.
+   */
+  def encode[T:ClassTag](rdd: RDD[Array[T]], featureCategories: Array[(Int, Map[T, Int])]):
+      RDD[Array[T]] = {
+    var outArrLen = rdd.first().length
+    for (catMap <- featureCategories) {
+      outArrLen += (catMap._2.size - 1)
+    }
+    rdd.map(encodeVec[T](_, featureCategories, outArrLen))
+  }
+
+  private def encodeVec[T:ClassTag](vec: Array[T], featureCategories: Array[(Int, Map[T, Int])],
+      outArrLen: Int): Array[T] = {
+    var outArrIndex = 0
+    val outVec = new Array[T](outArrLen)
+    var i = 0
+    var featureCatIndex = 0
+    val zero = 0.asInstanceOf[T]
+    val one = 1.asInstanceOf[T]
+    while (i < vec.length) {
+      if (featureCatIndex < featureCategories.length &&
+            featureCategories(featureCatIndex)._1 == i) {
+        var j = outArrIndex
+        val catVals = featureCategories(featureCatIndex)._2
+        while (j < outArrIndex + catVals.size) {
+          outVec(j) = zero
+          j += 1
+        }
+        outVec(outArrIndex + catVals.getOrElse(vec(i), -1)) = one
+        outArrIndex += catVals.size
+        featureCatIndex += 1
+      } else {
+        outVec(outArrIndex) = vec(i)
+        outArrIndex += 1
+      }
+
+      i += 1
+    }
+    outVec
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/preprocessing/OneHotEncoderSuite.scala b/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/preprocessing/OneHotEncoderSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..00b73dbea2a3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/preprocessing/OneHotEncoderSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+/*
+ * 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.mllib.preprocessing
+
+import org.apache.spark.{SparkContext, SparkConf}
+import org.apache.spark.mllib.util.LocalSparkContext
+
+import org.scalatest.FunSuite
+import org.scalatest.matchers.ShouldMatchers
+
+class OneHotEncoderSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext with ShouldMatchers {
+
+  test("one hot encoder") {
+    val vecs = Array(
+      Array("marcy playground", 1.3, "apple", 2),
+      Array("pearl jam", 3.5, "banana", 4),
+      Array("nirvana", 6.7, "apple", 3)
+    )
+    val categoricalFields = Array(0, 2)
+    val rdd = sc.parallelize(vecs, 2)
+
+    val catMap = OneHotEncoder.categories(rdd, categoricalFields)
+    val encoded = OneHotEncoder.encode(rdd, catMap)
+
+    val result = encoded.collect()
+    result.size should be (vecs.size)
+
+    val vec1 = Array[Any](0, 0, 0, 1.3, 0, 0, 2)
+    vec1(catMap(0)._2.getOrElse("marcy playground", -1)) = 1
+    vec1(4 + catMap(1)._2.getOrElse("apple", -1)) = 1
+
+    val vec2 = Array[Any](0, 0, 0, 3.5, 0, 0, 4)
+    vec2(catMap(0)._2.getOrElse("pearl jam", -1)) = 1
+    vec2(4 + catMap(1)._2.getOrElse("banana", -1)) = 1
+
+    val vec3 = Array[Any](0, 0, 0, 6.7, 0, 0, 3)
+    vec3(catMap(0)._2.getOrElse("nirvana", -1)) = 1
+    vec3(4 + catMap(1)._2.getOrElse("apple", -1)) = 1
+
+    result(0) should equal (vec1)
+    result(1) should equal (vec2)
+    result(2) should equal (vec3)
+  }
+}
+