How do you assign a lambda to a variable in Java 8?

You have forgotten the generics on your BiFunction:

public static void main(final String[] args) throws Exception {
    final Map<String, Integer> map = new HashMap<>();
    map.put("A", 1);
    map.put("B", 2);
    map.put("C", 3);
    final BiFunction<String, Integer, Integer> remapper = (k, v) -> v == null ? 42 : v + 41;
    map.compute("A", remapper);
}

Running:

PS C:\Users\Boris> java -version
java version "1.8.0-ea"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-ea-b120)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.0-b62, mixed mode)