diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/Attribute.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/Attribute.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..afb03b488ac56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/Attribute.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/*
+ * 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.ml.attribute
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{MetadataBuilder, Metadata}
+
+abstract class Attribute(val index: Int,
+                         val name: Option[String],
+                         val dimension: Int) {
+
+  require(index >= 0)
+  require(dimension >= 1)
+
+  def featureType: FeatureType
+
+  def toMetadata(): Metadata
+
+  private[attribute] def toBaseMetadata(): MetadataBuilder = {
+    val builder = new MetadataBuilder()
+    builder.putLong("index", index)
+    if (name.isDefined) {
+      builder.putString("name", name.get)
+    }
+    if (dimension > 1) {
+      builder.putLong("dimension", dimension)
+    }
+    builder
+  }
+
+}
+
+object Attribute {
+
+  def fromMetadata(metadata: Metadata): Attribute = {
+    FeatureTypes.withName(metadata.getString("type")) match {
+      case Categorical => CategoricalAttribute.fromMetadata(metadata)
+      case Continuous => ContinuousAttribute.fromMetadata(metadata)
+    }
+  }
+
+  private[attribute] def parseBaseMetadata(metadata: Metadata): (Int, Option[String], Int) = {
+    val index = metadata.getLong("index").toInt
+    val name = if (metadata.contains("name")) Some(metadata.getString("name")) else None
+    val dimension = if (metadata.contains("dimension")) metadata.getLong("dimension").toInt else 1
+    (index, name, dimension)
+  }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/CategoricalAttribute.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/CategoricalAttribute.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..4c54839863211
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/CategoricalAttribute.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+/*
+ * 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.ml.attribute
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types.Metadata
+
+class CategoricalAttribute private (
+    override val index: Int,
+    override val name: Option[String],
+    override val dimension: Int,
+    val categories: Option[Array[String]],
+    val cardinality: Option[Int]) extends Attribute(index, name, dimension) {
+
+  require(!categories.isDefined || categories.get.nonEmpty)
+  require(!cardinality.isDefined || cardinality.get > 0)
+
+  override def featureType: FeatureType = Categorical
+
+  override def toMetadata(): Metadata = {
+    val builder = toBaseMetadata()
+    if (categories.isDefined) {
+      builder.putStringArray("categories", categories.get)
+    }
+    if (cardinality.isDefined) {
+      builder.putLong("cardinality", cardinality.get)
+    }
+    builder.build()
+  }
+
+}
+
+private[attribute] object CategoricalAttribute {
+
+  def fromMetadata(metadata: Metadata): CategoricalAttribute = {
+    val (index, name, dimension) = Attribute.parseBaseMetadata(metadata)
+
+    var cardinality: Option[Int] =
+      if (metadata.contains("cardinality")) {
+        Some(metadata.getLong("cardinality").toInt)
+      } else {
+        None
+      }
+
+    val categories: Option[Array[String]] =
+      if (metadata.contains("categories")) {
+        val theCategories = Some(metadata.getStringArray("categories"))
+        if (cardinality.isDefined) {
+          require(theCategories.get.size <= cardinality.get)
+        } else {
+          cardinality = Some(theCategories.get.size)
+        }
+        theCategories
+      } else {
+        None
+      }
+
+    new CategoricalAttribute(index, name, dimension, categories, cardinality)
+  }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/ContinuousAttribute.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/ContinuousAttribute.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..137cc62921863
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/ContinuousAttribute.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+/*
+ * 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.ml.attribute
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types.Metadata
+
+class ContinuousAttribute private (
+    override val index: Int,
+    override val name: Option[String],
+    override val dimension: Int,
+    val min: Option[Double],
+    val max: Option[Double]) extends Attribute(index, name, dimension) {
+
+  if (min.isDefined && max.isDefined) {
+    require(min.get <= max.get)
+  }
+
+  override def featureType(): FeatureType = Continuous
+
+  override def toMetadata(): Metadata = {
+    val builder = toBaseMetadata()
+    if (min.isDefined) {
+      builder.putDouble("min", min.get)
+    }
+    if (max.isDefined) {
+      builder.putDouble("max", max.get)
+    }
+    builder.build()
+  }
+
+}
+
+private[attribute] object ContinuousAttribute {
+
+  def fromMetadata(metadata: Metadata): ContinuousAttribute = {
+    val (index, name, dimension) = Attribute.parseBaseMetadata(metadata)
+    val min = if (metadata.contains("min")) Some(metadata.getDouble("min")) else None
+    val max = if (metadata.contains("max")) Some(metadata.getDouble("max")) else None
+    new ContinuousAttribute(index, name, dimension, min, max)
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/FeatureAttributes.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/FeatureAttributes.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..fe69a6dc27203
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/FeatureAttributes.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+/*
+ * 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.ml.attribute
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{MetadataBuilder, Metadata}
+
+/**
+ * Representation of specialized information in a [[Metadata]] concerning
+ * data as machine learning features, with methods to access their associated attributes, like:
+ *
+ * - type (continuous, categorical, etc.) as [[FeatureType]]
+ * - optional feature name
+ * - for categorical features, the category values
+ * - for continuous values, maximum and minimum value
+ * - dimension for vector-valued features
+ *
+ * This information is stored as a [[Metadata]] under key "features", and contains an array of
+ * [[Metadata]] inside that for each feature for which metadata is defined. Example:
+ *
+ * {{{
+ *   {
+ *     ...
+ *     "features" : [
+ *       {
+ *         "index": 0,
+ *         "name": "age",
+ *         "type": "CONTINUOUS",
+ *         "min": 0
+ *       },
+ *       {
+ *         "index": 5,
+ *         "name": "gender",
+ *         "type": "CATEGORICAL",
+ *         "categories" : [ "male", "female" ]
+ *       },
+ *       {
+ *         "index": 6,
+ *         "name": "customerType",
+ *         "type": "CATEGORICAL",
+ *         "cardinality": 10
+ *       },
+ *       {
+ *         "index": 7,
+ *         "name": "percentAllocations",
+ *         "type": "CONTINUOUS",
+ *         "dimension": 10,
+ *         "min": 0,
+ *         "max": 1
+ *     ]
+ *     "producer": "..."
+ *     ...
+ *   }
+ * }}}
+ */
+class FeatureAttributes private (val attributes: Array[Attribute],
+                                 val producer: Option[String]) {
+
+  private val nameToIndex: Map[String,Int] =
+    attributes.filter(_.name.isDefined).map(att => (att.name.get, att.index)).toMap
+  private val indexToAttribute: Map[Int,Attribute] =
+    attributes.map(att => (att.index, att)).toMap
+  private val categoricalIndices: Array[Int] =
+    attributes.filter(_.featureType match {
+      case c: CategoricalFeatureType  => true
+      case _ => false
+    }).map(_.index)
+
+  def getFeatureAttribute(index: Int): Option[Attribute] = indexToAttribute.get(index)
+
+  def getFeatureIndex(featureName: String): Option[Int] = nameToIndex.get(featureName)
+
+  def categoricalFeatureIndices(): Array[Int] = categoricalIndices
+
+  def toMetadata(): Metadata = {
+    val builder = new MetadataBuilder()
+    builder.putMetadataArray("features", attributes.map(_.toMetadata()))
+    if (producer.isDefined) {
+      builder.putString("producer", producer.get)
+    }
+    builder.build()
+  }
+
+}
+
+object FeatureAttributes {
+
+  def fromMetadata(metadata: Metadata): FeatureAttributes = {
+    val attributes = metadata.getMetadataArray("features").map(Attribute.fromMetadata(_))
+    val producer =
+      if (metadata.contains("producer")) Some(metadata.getString("producer")) else None
+    new FeatureAttributes(attributes, producer)
+  }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/FeatureType.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/FeatureType.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..1ec9599be4696
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/attribute/FeatureType.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+/*
+ * 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.ml.attribute
+
+sealed trait FeatureType
+
+sealed trait ContinuousFeatureType extends FeatureType
+sealed trait CategoricalFeatureType extends FeatureType
+sealed trait DiscreteFeatureType extends ContinuousFeatureType
+
+case object Continuous extends ContinuousFeatureType
+case object Categorical extends CategoricalFeatureType
+case object Discrete extends DiscreteFeatureType
+case object Binary extends DiscreteFeatureType with CategoricalFeatureType
+
+object FeatureTypes {
+  def withName(name: String): FeatureType = name match {
+    case "CONTINUOUS" => Continuous
+    case "CATEGORICAL" => Categorical
+    case "DISCRETE" => Discrete
+    case "BINARY" => Binary
+  }
+}