[[kafka-tombstones]]
= Tombstone Records (null record values)

When using compacted topics, a record with a `null` value (also called a tombstone record) represents the deletion of a key.
To receive such messages in a Spring Cloud Stream function, you can use the following strategy.

====
[source, java]
----
@Bean
public Function<Message<Person>, String> myFunction() {
    return value -> {
        Object v = value.getPayload();
        String className = v.getClass().getName();
        if (className.isEqualTo("org.springframework.kafka.support.KafkaNull")) {
            // this is a tombstone record
        }
        else {
            // continue with processing
        }
    };
}
----
====

