from pyspark.sql import HiveContext
Query=""" select dt
from default.content_publisher_events_log
where  dt  between  '20170415'  and '20170419'
"""
hive_context = HiveContext(sc)
user_data = hive_context.sql(Query)
user_data.count()
0 #that's the result

>>> sqlContext.sql("show tables").show()
+--------+--------------------+-----------+
|database|           tableName|isTemporary|
+--------+--------------------+-----------+
| default|content_publisher...|      false|
| default|  feed_installer_log|      false|
| default|keyword_based_ads...|      false|
| default|search_providers_log|      false|
+--------+--------------------+-----------+

>>> user_data.printSchema()
root
 |-- dt: string (nullable = true)