How does Hashing work for HashSet?

Question

I have just read and understood how hashing works with HashMap: how it uses a hashtable, makes hashcodes with a hash function etc.

My question is: If the same principles apply to HashSet? Well obviously it cannot compute a hashcode from HashSet's key, because it doesn't have one. But does it compute the hashcode from the value of the HashSet then?

Answer 1

Actually, a HashSet is backed by HashMap that maps all its keys to a single constant object. The key-set of this map acts as the set. See for yourself by looking at the HashSet source. So yes, the mechanisms by which the two operate are very similar.