diff --git a/ksql-engine/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/structured/SchemaKStream.java b/ksql-engine/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/structured/SchemaKStream.java
index 84ee7386dbdc..4ceaede1bdbc 100644
--- a/ksql-engine/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/structured/SchemaKStream.java
+++ b/ksql-engine/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/structured/SchemaKStream.java
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import io.confluent.ksql.engine.rewrite.StatementRewriteForRowtime;
 import io.confluent.ksql.execution.builder.KsqlQueryBuilder;
+import io.confluent.ksql.execution.codegen.CodeGenRunner;
+import io.confluent.ksql.execution.codegen.ExpressionMetadata;
 import io.confluent.ksql.execution.context.QueryContext;
 import io.confluent.ksql.execution.context.QueryLoggerUtil;
 import io.confluent.ksql.execution.ddl.commands.KsqlTopic;
@@ -75,7 +77,6 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.Optional;
-import java.util.OptionalInt;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 import org.apache.kafka.connect.data.Struct;
@@ -690,22 +691,20 @@ public SchemaKStream<K> flatMap(
       final List<FunctionCall> tableFunctions,
       final QueryContext.Stacker contextStacker
   ) {
-    final List<TableFunctionApplier> tableFunctionAppliers = new ArrayList<>();
+    final List<TableFunctionApplier> tableFunctionAppliers = new ArrayList<>(tableFunctions.size());
+    final CodeGenRunner codeGenRunner =
+        new CodeGenRunner(getSchema(), ksqlConfig, functionRegistry);
     for (FunctionCall functionCall: tableFunctions) {
-      final ColumnReferenceExp exp = (ColumnReferenceExp)functionCall.getArguments().get(0);
-      final ColumnName columnName = exp.getReference().name();
-      final ColumnRef ref = ColumnRef.withoutSource(columnName);
-      final OptionalInt indexInInput = getSchema().valueColumnIndex(ref);
-      if (!indexInInput.isPresent()) {
-        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't find input column " + columnName);
-      }
+      final Expression expression = functionCall.getArguments().get(0);
+      final ExpressionMetadata expressionMetadata =
+          codeGenRunner.buildCodeGenFromParseTree(expression, "Table function");
       final KsqlTableFunction tableFunction = UdtfUtil.resolveTableFunction(
           functionRegistry,
           functionCall,
           getSchema()
       );
       final TableFunctionApplier tableFunctionApplier =
-          new TableFunctionApplier(tableFunction, indexInInput.getAsInt());
+          new TableFunctionApplier(tableFunction, expressionMetadata);
       tableFunctionAppliers.add(tableFunctionApplier);
     }
     final StreamFlatMap<K> step = ExecutionStepFactory.streamFlatMap(
diff --git a/ksql-execution/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/execution/function/udtf/KudtfFlatMapper.java b/ksql-execution/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/execution/function/udtf/KudtfFlatMapper.java
index 65a470af0c58..af4c9812a7f9 100644
--- a/ksql-execution/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/execution/function/udtf/KudtfFlatMapper.java
+++ b/ksql-execution/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/execution/function/udtf/KudtfFlatMapper.java
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ public KudtfFlatMapper(final List<TableFunctionApplier> tableFunctionAppliers) {
 
   /*
   This function zips results from multiple table functions together as described in KLIP-9
-  in the design-proposals directory
+  in the design-proposals directory.
    */
   @Override
   public Iterable<GenericRow> apply(final GenericRow row) {
diff --git a/ksql-execution/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/execution/function/udtf/TableFunctionApplier.java b/ksql-execution/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/execution/function/udtf/TableFunctionApplier.java
index 30e78afa981c..c872db939081 100644
--- a/ksql-execution/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/execution/function/udtf/TableFunctionApplier.java
+++ b/ksql-execution/src/main/java/io/confluent/ksql/execution/function/udtf/TableFunctionApplier.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 import com.google.errorprone.annotations.Immutable;
 import io.confluent.ksql.GenericRow;
+import io.confluent.ksql.execution.codegen.ExpressionMetadata;
 import io.confluent.ksql.function.KsqlTableFunction;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Objects;
@@ -26,16 +27,17 @@
 @Immutable
 public class TableFunctionApplier {
   private final KsqlTableFunction tableFunction;
-  private final int argColumnIndex;
+  private final ExpressionMetadata expressionMetadata;
 
-  public TableFunctionApplier(final KsqlTableFunction tableFunction, final int argColumnIndex) {
+  public TableFunctionApplier(final KsqlTableFunction tableFunction,
+      final ExpressionMetadata expressionMetadata) {
     this.tableFunction = Objects.requireNonNull(tableFunction);
-    this.argColumnIndex = argColumnIndex;
+    this.expressionMetadata = Objects.requireNonNull(expressionMetadata);
   }
 
   @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
   List<Object> apply(final GenericRow row) {
-    final List<Object> unexplodedValue = row.getColumnValue(argColumnIndex);
-    return tableFunction.flatMap(unexplodedValue);
+    final Object unexplodedVal = expressionMetadata.evaluate(row);
+    return tableFunction.flatMap(unexplodedVal);
   }
 }
diff --git a/ksql-functional-tests/src/test/resources/query-validation-tests/table-functions.json b/ksql-functional-tests/src/test/resources/query-validation-tests/table-functions.json
index 0f3b4c784c2d..84636c2fd495 100644
--- a/ksql-functional-tests/src/test/resources/query-validation-tests/table-functions.json
+++ b/ksql-functional-tests/src/test/resources/query-validation-tests/table-functions.json
@@ -115,6 +115,21 @@
         {"topic": "OUTPUT", "key": "1", "value": {"KSQL_COL_0": 3, "KSQL_COL_1": 20}},
         {"topic": "OUTPUT", "key": "1", "value": {"KSQL_COL_0": 4, "KSQL_COL_1": null}}
       ]
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "table functions with complex expressions",
+      "statements": [
+        "CREATE STREAM TEST (F0 INT, F1 INT, F2 INT, F3 INT) WITH (kafka_topic='test_topic', value_format='JSON');",
+        "CREATE STREAM OUTPUT AS SELECT F0, EXPLODE(AS_ARRAY(ABS(F1 + F2), ABS(F2 + F3), ABS(F3 + F1))) FROM TEST;"
+      ],
+      "inputs": [
+        {"topic": "test_topic", "key": 0, "value": {"ID":  0, "F0": 1, "F1": 10, "F2": 11, "F3":  12}}
+      ],
+      "outputs": [
+        {"topic": "OUTPUT", "key": "0", "value": {"F0": 1, "KSQL_COL_1": 21.0}},
+        {"topic": "OUTPUT", "key": "0", "value": {"F0": 1, "KSQL_COL_1": 23.0}},
+        {"topic": "OUTPUT", "key": "0", "value": {"F0": 1, "KSQL_COL_1": 22.0}}
+      ]
     }
   ]
 }
\ No newline at end of file