What does this "return unicode(self.creator) + " - " + self.title" do in Django?

Question

I am following a lightbird tutorial on creating a forum with Django/Python. Here is the code to create a Thread model.

class Thread(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    creator = models.ForeignKey(User, blank=True, null=True)
    modified = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
    forum = models.ForeignKey(Forum)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return unicode(self.creator) + " - " + self.title

And a Post model:

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=60)
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    creator = models.ForeignKey(User, blank=True, null=True)
    thread = models.ForeignKey(Thread)
    body = models.TextField(max_length=10000)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return u"%s - %s - %s" % (self.creator, self.thread, self.title)

    def short(self):
        return u"%s - %s\n%s" % (self.creator, self.title, self.created.strftime("%b %d, %I:%M %p"))
    short.allow_tags = True

I am having difficulty understanding the code after the unicode function! I have been using the unicode while creating model in a very simple form like:

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.title

I understand this but not the code in the models above. Could someone please explain it to me. Thank you!

Answer 1

 unicode(self.creator) +\ #will call the __unicode__ method of the User class
 ' - ' +\ # will add a dash
 self.title #will add the title which is a string

then for the second one

  "%s"%some_var #will convert some_var to a string (call __str__ usually...may fall back on __unicode__ or something)

so

return u"%s - %s\n%s" % (self.creator, self.title, self.created.strftime("%b %d, %I:%M %p"))

will call the __str__ (or maybe __unicode__)function on User class for the creator

then it adds a dash and the title

\n is an end line

and strftime will convert a timestamp into english "MonthAbbrv. Day, 24Hr:Minutes"