Generating dbf from gdb feature class

Question

I'm interested in generating a dbf from a feature class in a gdb. I am also interested in selecting only 6 out of the many fields, which is why I added steps to keep only wanted fields. I am using python on ArcMap and ArcCatalog 10.3.1. Here is the code:

fc = r"C:\Users\migrate\Desktop\SFBG_GIN_Test\gdb\SFBG_GIN_Test.gdb\PlantCenter_Test"
dbfLocation = r"C:\Users\migrate\Desktop\SFBG_GIN_Test\dbf"
dbfOutputName = "Plants_GIS"
dbfPath = dbfLocation + '\\' + dbfOutputName + '.dbf'

if arcpy.Exists(dbfPath): # This line exists to overwrite any existing dbfs
    dm.Delete(dbfPath)

arcpy.TableToTable_conversion (fc, dbfLocation, dbfOutputName)

# Get all fields in dbf and remove unwanted fields
fields = arcpy.ListFields("fc_temp") 
keepFields = ['GIS_2016_08_25', 'SourceAcce', 'AccessionC', 'SectionNam', 'Longitude', 'Latitude']
dropFields = [x.name for x in fields if x.name not in keepFields]
dm.DeleteField (dbfPath, dropFields)
print "DBF created"

I get the following error:

Answer 1

It appears that TableToTable is having problems converting all of the fields in the featureclass to an equivalent field type for the DBF. Try using MakeTableView_management to create a table view with only the fields you want (those in the keepFields list) before using TableToTable.

Note that the DBF format doesn't allow a text field with over 255 characters.

Answer 2

I worked around the error by converting the gdb feature class to an excel file (TableToExcel), then from excel to dbf (ExceltoTable). I then deleted the unnecessary fields. Not quite certain why this works however.