reversing speedwalk strings

I wrote this little python function to reverse speedwalk strings of the form:

4we3(sw)2(up)3e(in)(down)(out)(ne)

It handles e,w,s,n,ne,se,nw,sw,up,down,in and out. It doesn't handle other nonstandard directions. It's not the most efficient code, but it works for me.


import string

def reverseSpeedWalkStr(str):
    str=str.lower()

    #remove whitespace
    strippedstr=''
    for eachchar in str:
        if eachchar != " ":
            strippedstr=strippedstr+eachchar

    #add spaces between commands
    spacedstr=strippedstr.replace("(sw)","(SW) ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("(se)","(SE) ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("(nw)","(NW) ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("(ne)","(NE) ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("(up)","(UP) ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("(down)","(DOWN) ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("(in)","(OUT) ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("w","W ")
    spcadedstr=spacedstr.replace("e","E ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("s","S ")
    spacedstr=spacedstr.replace("n","N ")
     
    #reverse order of commands 
    strlist=spacedstr.split()
    strlist.reverse()
    reversedstr=string.join(strlist)+' '

    #swap direction
    swappedstr=reversedstr.replace("(NE) ","(SW)")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("(NW) ","(SE)")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("(SE) ","(NW)")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("(SW) ","(NE)")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("(DOWN) ","(UP)")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("(UP) ","(DOWN)")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("(OUT) ","(IN)")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("W ","e")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("E ","w")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("S ","n")
    swappedstr=swappedstr.replace("N ","s")

    swappedstr=swappedstr.lower()
    return(swappedstr)