A generic error is returned when running the Zonal Statistics as Table tool in ArcMap

Description

The Zonal Statistics as Table tool from the Spatial Analyst toolbar creates statistical summaries for a raster within the zones of a value raster and reports the results to a table. Running the tool may fail with a generic error:

"Error 999999: Error executing function."

In some instances, along with the error message, the tool and ArcMap stop responding.

Cause

There are several possible reasons for this issue.

• The Zone field used to run the tool contains Null values.
• The Zone field name is greater than 17 characters in length.
• A large number of unique values are present in the raster dataset.
• The feature zone data used contains more than 170,000 features.

Solution or Workaround

• Use a field with no null values as the Zone field. If no valid fields exist, the ObjectID field (for example, OID or FID) are selected by default.
• Use a name shorter than 17 characters as the Zone field name.
• Navigate to Customize > ArcMap Options > Raster > Raster Dataset and set the 'Maximum number of unique values to render' option at 10,000,000.
• Install ArcGIS for Desktop 10.2.1 or later.
  
  

  Note:
  The 999999 error caused by a large number of input features is a known limitation in ArcGIS for Desktop 10.2 and earlier versions. This has been resolved in version 10.2.1 and later.