Disclosed aspects relate to transforming a user-defined table function (UDTF) to a derived table in a database management system (DBMS). It may be detected by the DBMS that a query indicates the UDTF. A derived table may be constructed from the UDTF. The derived table may be derived from a set of statements of the UDTF. The derived table may be introduced to the query to fulfill the UDTF. A query plan may be generated for the query by the DBMS. The query plan may be generated in response to introducing the derived table in the query.