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Assuming you are using pyhton 3
__str__() and __unicode__() methods
In Python 2, the object model specifies str() and unicode()
methods. If these methods exist, they must return str (bytes) and
unicode (text) respectively.The print statement and the str built-in call str() to determine
the human-readable representation of an object. The unicode built-in
calls unicode() if it exists, and otherwise falls back to
str() and decodes the result with the system encoding. Conversely, the Model base class automatically derives str() from
unicode() by encoding to UTF-8.In Python 3, there’s simply str(), which must return str (text).
(It is also possible to define bytes(), but Django application
have little use for that method, because they hardly ever deal with
bytes.)Django provides a simple way to define str() and unicode()
methods that work on Python 2 and 3: you must define a str()
method returning text and to apply the python_2_unicode_compatible()
decorator.On Python 3, the decorator is a no-op. On Python 2, it defines
appropriate unicode() and str() methods (replacing the
original str() method in the process). Here’s an example:
from __future__ import unicode_literals
from django.utils.encoding import python_2_unicode_compatible
@python_2_unicode_compatible
class MyClass(object):
def __str__(self):
return "Instance of my class"
This technique is the best match for Django’s porting philosophy.
For forwards compatibility, this decorator is available as of Django
1.4.2.Finally, note that repr() must return a str on all versions of
Python.
Source https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/topics/python3/#str-and-unicode-methods
