diff --git a/python/pyspark/rdd.py b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
index 2f0db7fbc41c2..3026df6ec8f4b 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/rdd.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
@@ -1809,7 +1809,7 @@ def saveAsTextFile(self, path, compressionCodecClass=None):
         >>> sc.parallelize(['foo', 'bar']).saveAsTextFile(tempFile3.name, codec)
         >>> from fileinput import input, hook_compressed
         >>> result = sorted(input(glob(tempFile3.name + "/part*.gz"), openhook=hook_compressed))
-        >>> b''.join(result).decode('utf-8')
+        >>> ''.join([r.decode('utf-8') if isinstance(r, bytes) else r for r in result])
         'bar\\nfoo\\n'
         """
         def func(split, iterator):