diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/matrix/data/LibMatrixSketch.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/matrix/data/LibMatrixSketch.java
index 43a4c1bc5a4..29089078a89 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/matrix/data/LibMatrixSketch.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/matrix/data/LibMatrixSketch.java
@@ -22,14 +22,15 @@
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.NotImplementedException;
 import org.apache.sysds.common.Types;
 
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 
 public class LibMatrixSketch {
 
 	public static MatrixBlock getUniqueValues(MatrixBlock blkIn, Types.Direction dir) {
-		//similar to R's unique, this operation takes a matrix and computes the
-		//unique values (or rows in case of multiple column inputs)
+		// similar to R's unique, this operation takes a matrix and computes the unique values
+		// (or rows in case of multiple column inputs)
 		
 		int rlen = blkIn.getNumRows();
 		int clen = blkIn.getNumColumns();
@@ -57,6 +58,63 @@ public static MatrixBlock getUniqueValues(MatrixBlock blkIn, Types.Direction dir
 				break;
 
 			case Row:
+				ArrayList<double[]> retainedRows = new ArrayList<>();
+
+				for (int i=0; i<rlen; ++i) {
+
+					// BitSet will not work because we need 2 pieces of info:
+					// 1. the index and
+					// 2. the value
+					// A BitSet gives us only whether there is a value at a particular index, but not what that
+					// specific value is.
+
+					double[] currentRow = new double[clen];
+					for (int j=0; j<clen; ++j) {
+						double rawValue = blkIn.getValue(i, j);
+						currentRow[j] = rawValue;
+					}
+
+					// no need to check for duplicates for the first row
+					if (i == 0) {
+						retainedRows.add(currentRow);
+						continue;
+					}
+
+					// ensure we are not adding duplicate rows to retainedRows array
+					int uniqueRowCount = 0;
+					for (int m=0; m<retainedRows.size(); ++m) {
+
+						double[] prevRow = retainedRows.get(m);
+
+						int n = 0;
+						while (n < clen) {
+							if (prevRow[n] != currentRow[n]) {
+								break;
+							}
+							n++;
+						}
+
+						// column check terminates early only if there is a column-level mismatch, ie rows are different
+						if (n != clen) {
+							uniqueRowCount++;
+						}
+					}
+
+					// add current row to retainedRows iff it is unique from all prev retained rows
+					if (uniqueRowCount == retainedRows.size()) {
+						retainedRows.add(currentRow);
+					}
+				}
+
+				blkOut = new MatrixBlock(retainedRows.size(), blkIn.getNumColumns(), false);
+				for (int i=0; i<retainedRows.size(); ++i) {
+					for (int j=0; j<blkIn.getNumColumns(); ++j) {
+						blkOut.quickSetValue(i, j, retainedRows.get(i)[j]);
+					}
+				}
+
+				break;
+
 			case Col:
 				throw new NotImplementedException("Unique Row/Col has not been implemented yet");
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/sysds/test/functions/unique/UniqueRow.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/sysds/test/functions/unique/UniqueRow.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ee8c664efaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/sysds/test/functions/unique/UniqueRow.java
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+/*
+ * 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.sysds.test.functions.unique;
+
+import org.apache.sysds.common.Types;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class UniqueRow extends UniqueBase {
+	private final static String TEST_NAME = "uniqueRow";
+	private final static String TEST_DIR = "functions/unique/";
+	private static final String TEST_CLASS_DIR = TEST_DIR + UniqueRow.class.getSimpleName() + "/";
+
+
+	@Override
+	protected String getTestName() {
+		return TEST_NAME;
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	protected String getTestDir() {
+		return TEST_DIR;
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	protected String getTestClassDir() {
+		return TEST_CLASS_DIR;
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testBaseCaseCP() {
+		double[][] inputMatrix = {{0}};
+		double[][] expectedMatrix = {{0}};
+		uniqueTest(inputMatrix, expectedMatrix, Types.ExecType.CP, 0.0);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testSkinnyCP() {
+		double[][] inputMatrix = {{1},{1},{6},{9},{4},{2},{0},{9},{0},{0},{4},{4}};
+		double[][] expectedMatrix = {{1},{6},{9},{4},{2},{0}};
+		uniqueTest(inputMatrix, expectedMatrix, Types.ExecType.CP, 0.0);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testSquareCP() {
+		double[][] inputMatrix = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {1, 2, 3}};
+		double[][] expectedMatrix = {{1, 2, 3},{4, 5, 6}};
+		uniqueTest(inputMatrix, expectedMatrix, Types.ExecType.CP, 0.0);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testWideCP() {
+		double[][] inputMatrix = {{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}};
+		double[][] expectedMatrix = {{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12}};
+		uniqueTest(inputMatrix, expectedMatrix, Types.ExecType.CP, 0.0);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testNoDuplicatesCP() {
+		double[][] inputMatrix = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9}};
+		double[][] expectedMatrix = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9}};
+		uniqueTest(inputMatrix, expectedMatrix, Types.ExecType.CP, 0.0);
+	}
+}
diff --git a/src/test/scripts/functions/unique/uniqueRow.dml b/src/test/scripts/functions/unique/uniqueRow.dml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..53baca49e01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/scripts/functions/unique/uniqueRow.dml
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+#-------------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# 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.
+#
+#-------------------------------------------------------------
+
+input = read($1);
+res = unique(input, dir="r");
+write(res, $2, format="text");