How is the hashset used in C#?
In C#, the HashSet is a collection class used to store unique elements. It is based on the data structure of a hash table and allows for efficient insertion, deletion, and search operations.
The main uses of a HashSet are as follows:
- Instantiate a HashSet object.
- Create a new HashSet object named set.
- Add elements:
- Add the item to the set.
- Remove elements.
- Remove the item from the set.
- Determine if the element exists:
- Does the set contain the item?
- Get the number of elements in the collection.
- There are a total of ‘count’ elements in the set.
- Iterate through the elements in the collection.
- for each element in the set, do something with it.
- Merge two hash sets:
- Combine the set with the otherSet.
- Find the intersection of two HashSets.
- Find the intersection between the two sets.
- Find the difference between two HashSet.
- Update the set by removing all elements that are also in the otherSet.
It is important to note that elements in a HashSet must be hashable, so it requires the element type T to implement the GetHashCode() and Equals() methods.
In addition, HashSet also offers other methods and properties that can be used according to specific needs.