If you consider the usage of Table Functions then you should be aware of some limitations to the optimizer calculations, in particular when considering a join between a Table Function and other row sources.
As outlined in one of my previous posts you can and should help the optimizer to arrive at a reasonable cardinality estimate when dealing with table functions, however doing so doesn't provide all necessary inputs to the join cardinality calculation that are useful and available from the statistics when dealing with regular tables.
Therefore even when following the recommended practice regarding the cardinality estimates it is possible to end up with some inaccuracies. This post will explain why.
Join Cardinality Basics
