diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrame.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrame.scala
index 5aece166aad22..db561825e676b 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrame.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrame.scala
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.{EvaluatePython, ExplainCommand, LogicalRDD}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.jdbc.JDBCWriteDetails
 import org.apache.spark.sql.json.JsonRDD
-import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{NumericType, StructType}
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{NumericType, StructType, StructField, StringType}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.sources.{ResolvedDataSource, CreateTableUsingAsSelect}
 import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
 
@@ -751,6 +751,57 @@ class DataFrame private[sql](
     select(colNames :_*)
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Compute numerical statistics for given columns of this [[DataFrame]]:
+   * count, mean (avg), stddev (standard deviation), min, max.
+   * Each row of the resulting [[DataFrame]] contains column with statistic name
+   * and columns with statistic results for each given column.
+   * If no columns are given then computes for all numerical columns.
+   *
+   * {{{
+   *   df.describe("age", "height")
+   *
+   *   // summary age   height
+   *   // count   10.0  10.0
+   *   // mean    53.3  178.05
+   *   // stddev  11.6  15.7
+   *   // min     18.0  163.0
+   *   // max     92.0  192.0
+   * }}}
+   */
+  @scala.annotation.varargs
+  def describe(cols: String*): DataFrame = {
+
+    def stddevExpr(expr: Expression) =
+      Sqrt(Subtract(Average(Multiply(expr, expr)), Multiply(Average(expr), Average(expr))))
+
+    val statistics = List[(String, Expression => Expression)](
+      "count" -> Count,
+      "mean" -> Average,
+      "stddev" -> stddevExpr,
+      "min" -> Min,
+      "max" -> Max)
+
+    val aggCols = (if (cols.isEmpty) numericColumns.map(_.prettyString) else cols).toList
+
+    val localAgg = if (aggCols.nonEmpty) {
+      val aggExprs = statistics.flatMap { case (_, colToAgg) =>
+        aggCols.map(c => Column(colToAgg(Column(c).expr)).as(c))
+      }
+
+      agg(aggExprs.head, aggExprs.tail: _*).head().toSeq
+        .grouped(aggCols.size).toSeq.zip(statistics).map { case (aggregation, (statistic, _)) =>
+        Row(statistic :: aggregation.toList: _*)
+      }
+    } else {
+      statistics.map { case (name, _) => Row(name) }
+    }
+
+    val schema = StructType(("summary" :: aggCols).map(StructField(_, StringType)))
+    val rowRdd = sqlContext.sparkContext.parallelize(localAgg)
+    sqlContext.createDataFrame(rowRdd, schema)
+  }
+
   /**
    * Returns the first `n` rows.
    * @group action
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 c30ed694a62f0..afbedd1e5825d 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
@@ -443,6 +443,51 @@ class DataFrameSuite extends QueryTest {
     assert(df.schema.map(_.name).toSeq === Seq("key", "valueRenamed", "newCol"))
   }
 
+  test("describe") {
+
+    val describeTestData = Seq(
+      ("Bob",   16, 176),
+      ("Alice", 32, 164),
+      ("David", 60, 192),
+      ("Amy",   24, 180)).toDF("name", "age", "height")
+
+    val describeResult = Seq(
+      Row("count",   4,               4),
+      Row("mean",    33.0,            178.0),
+      Row("stddev",  16.583123951777, 10.0),
+      Row("min",     16,              164),
+      Row("max",     60,              192))
+
+    val emptyDescribeResult = Seq(
+      Row("count",   0,    0),
+      Row("mean",    null, null),
+      Row("stddev",  null, null),
+      Row("min",     null, null),
+      Row("max",     null, null))
+
+    def getSchemaAsSeq(df: DataFrame) = df.schema.map(_.name).toSeq
+
+    val describeTwoCols = describeTestData.describe("age", "height")
+    assert(getSchemaAsSeq(describeTwoCols) === Seq("summary", "age", "height"))
+    checkAnswer(describeTwoCols, describeResult)
+
+    val describeAllCols = describeTestData.describe()
+    assert(getSchemaAsSeq(describeAllCols) === Seq("summary", "age", "height"))
+    checkAnswer(describeAllCols, describeResult)
+
+    val describeOneCol = describeTestData.describe("age")
+    assert(getSchemaAsSeq(describeOneCol) === Seq("summary", "age"))
+    checkAnswer(describeOneCol, describeResult.map { case Row(s, d, _) => Row(s, d)} )
+
+    val describeNoCol = describeTestData.select("name").describe()
+    assert(getSchemaAsSeq(describeNoCol) === Seq("summary"))
+    checkAnswer(describeNoCol, describeResult.map { case Row(s, _, _) => Row(s)} )
+
+    val emptyDescription = describeTestData.limit(0).describe()
+    assert(getSchemaAsSeq(emptyDescription) === Seq("summary", "age", "height"))
+    checkAnswer(emptyDescription, emptyDescribeResult)
+  }
+
   test("apply on query results (SPARK-5462)") {
     val df = testData.sqlContext.sql("select key from testData")
     checkAnswer(df.select(df("key")), testData.select('key).collect().toSeq)