MAX = 1000 def replace_spaces(string): string = string.strip() i = len(string) space_count = string.count(' ') new_length = i + space_count * 2 if new_length > MAX: return -1 index = new_length - 1 string = list(string) for f in range(i - 2, new_length - 2): string.append('0') for j in range(i - 1, 0, -1): if string[j] == ' ': string[index] = '0' string[index - 1] = '2' string[index - 2] = '%' index = index - 3 else: string[index] = string[j] index -= 1 return ''.join(string)