Eliminating a column from a copied feature class via a fieldmap object in ArcGIS Python

Question

The use case is exporting a feature class via a Python script (arcgisscripting v9.3x. Only a few of the columns are needed in the result feature class.

I commonly use the fieldmappings/fieldmap objects to rename columns. The docs state that you can also use them to delete a field as the feature class is being exported. Can anyone provide an example of this?

Answer 1

The last sample in the Mapping input fields to output fields help topic has a python example of removing a field from a field map. Here's the relevant code:

fieldmappings = arcpy.FieldMappings()
<snip>
fieldmappings.removeFieldMap(fieldmappings.findFieldMapIndex("TRACTCODE"))

That is for 10 but it looks like there were similar methods at 9.3: FieldMappings properties