diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/util/LinearDataGenerator.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/util/LinearDataGenerator.scala
index 97568c9c659e7..f5e325330701e 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/util/LinearDataGenerator.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/util/LinearDataGenerator.scala
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ object LinearDataGenerator {
 
     val rnd = new Random(seed)
     val rndG = new Random(seed)
-    if (sparsity <= 0.0) {
+    if (sparsity == 0.0) {
       (0 until nPoints).map { _ =>
         val features = Vectors.dense((0 until weights.length).map { i =>
           (rnd.nextDouble() - 0.5) * math.sqrt(12.0 * xVariance(i)) + xMean(i)
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ object LinearDataGenerator {
       val sparseRnd = new Random(seed)
       (0 until nPoints).map { _ =>
         val (values, indices) = (0 until weights.length).filter { _ =>
-          sparseRnd.nextDouble() >= sparsity }.map { i =>
+          sparseRnd.nextDouble() <= sparsity }.map { i =>
           ((rnd.nextDouble() - 0.5) * math.sqrt(12.0 * xVariance(i)) + xMean(i), i)
         }.unzip
         val features = Vectors.sparse(weights.length, indices.toArray, values.toArray)