diff --git a/docs/ml-features.md b/docs/ml-features.md
index 677e4bfb916e8c9d2f81b55379645e04b358cf72..5809f65d637e4e7f9ecf0cd5d80f5c91c3ed4e11 100644
--- a/docs/ml-features.md
+++ b/docs/ml-features.md
@@ -1121,7 +1121,25 @@ for more details on the API.
 
 ## RFormula
 
-`RFormula` selects columns specified by an [R model formula](https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/stats/html/formula.html). It produces a vector column of features and a double column of labels. Like when formulas are used in R for linear regression, string input columns will be one-hot encoded, and numeric columns will be cast to doubles. If not already present in the DataFrame, the output label column will be created from the specified response variable in the formula.
+`RFormula` selects columns specified by an [R model formula](https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/stats/html/formula.html). 
+Currently we support a limited subset of the R operators, including '~', '.', ':', '+', and '-'.
+The basic operators are:
+
+* `~` separate target and terms
+* `+` concat terms, "+ 0" means removing intercept
+* `-` remove a term, "- 1" means removing intercept
+* `:` interaction (multiplication for numeric values, or binarized categorical values)
+* `.` all columns except target
+
+Suppose `a` and `b` are double columns, we use the following simple examples to illustrate the effect of `RFormula`:
+
+* `y ~ a + b` means model `y ~ w0 + w1 * a + w2 * b` where `w0` is the intercept and `w1, w2` are coefficients.
+* `y ~ a + b + a:b - 1` means model `y ~ w1 * a + w2 * b + w3 * a * b` where `w1, w2, w3` are coefficients.
+
+`RFormula` produces a vector column of features and a double or string column of label. 
+Like when formulas are used in R for linear regression, string input columns will be one-hot encoded, and numeric columns will be cast to doubles.
+If the label column is of type string, it will be first transformed to double with `StringIndexer`.
+If the label column does not exist in the DataFrame, the output label column will be created from the specified response variable in the formula.
 
 **Examples**
 
diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/feature/RFormula.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/feature/RFormula.scala
index 6cc9d025445c05aff057b5ad4ad43d05755bca55..c21da218b36d6f52fd9722fdfbd57c14e3d0b261 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/feature/RFormula.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/feature/RFormula.scala
@@ -45,6 +45,27 @@ private[feature] trait RFormulaBase extends HasFeaturesCol with HasLabelCol {
  * Implements the transforms required for fitting a dataset against an R model formula. Currently
  * we support a limited subset of the R operators, including '~', '.', ':', '+', and '-'. Also see
  * the R formula docs here: http://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/stats/html/formula.html
+ *
+ * The basic operators are:
+ *  - `~` separate target and terms
+ *  - `+` concat terms, "+ 0" means removing intercept
+ *  - `-` remove a term, "- 1" means removing intercept
+ *  - `:` interaction (multiplication for numeric values, or binarized categorical values)
+ *  - `.` all columns except target
+ *
+ * Suppose `a` and `b` are double columns, we use the following simple examples
+ * to illustrate the effect of `RFormula`:
+ *  - `y ~ a + b` means model `y ~ w0 + w1 * a + w2 * b` where `w0` is the intercept and `w1, w2`
+ * are coefficients.
+ *  - `y ~ a + b + a:b - 1` means model `y ~ w1 * a + w2 * b + w3 * a * b` where `w1, w2, w3`
+ * are coefficients.
+ *
+ * RFormula produces a vector column of features and a double or string column of label.
+ * Like when formulas are used in R for linear regression, string input columns will be one-hot
+ * encoded, and numeric columns will be cast to doubles.
+ * If the label column is of type string, it will be first transformed to double with
+ * `StringIndexer`. If the label column does not exist in the DataFrame, the output label column
+ * will be created from the specified response variable in the formula.
  */
 @Experimental
 class RFormula(override val uid: String) extends Estimator[RFormulaModel] with RFormulaBase {