def _skip_spaces(string, idx):
    """
    Retrieves the next non-space character after idx index in the given string

    :param string: The string to look into
    :param idx: The base search index
    :return: The next non-space character index, -1 if not found
    """
    i = idx
    for char in string[idx:]:
        if not char.isspace():
            return i
        i += 1

    return -1