def range(self, start, end=None, step=1, numSlices=None):
        """
        Create a new RDD of int containing elements from `start` to `end`
        (exclusive), increased by `step` every element. Can be called the same
        way as python's built-in range() function. If called with a single argument,
        the argument is interpreted as `end`, and `start` is set to 0.

        :param start: the start value
        :param end: the end value (exclusive)
        :param step: the incremental step (default: 1)
        :param numSlices: the number of partitions of the new RDD
        :return: An RDD of int

        >>> sc.range(5).collect()
        [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
        >>> sc.range(2, 4).collect()
        [2, 3]
        >>> sc.range(1, 7, 2).collect()
        [1, 3, 5]
        """
        if end is None:
            end = start
            start = 0

        return self.parallelize(xrange(start, end, step), numSlices)