Can someone explain the concept of hash code and hash set in simple terms.
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Taken from: http://isagoksu.com/2009/development/java/what-is-hash-code/
If you want to file something away for later retrieval, it can be faster if you file it numerically rather than by a long alphabetic key. A hashCode is a way of computing a small (32-bit) digest numeric key from a long String or even an arbitrary clump of bytes. The numeric key itself is meaningless and the hashCode functions for computing them can look a bit insane. However, when you go to look for something, you can do the same digest calculation on the long alphabetic key you are looking for, and no matter how bizarre an algorithm you used, you will calculate the same hashCode, and will be able to look up numerically with it. Of course there is always the possibility two different Strings will have the same digest hashCode. However, even then, all is not lost; it greatly narrows down the search, hence speeding it up. A Hashtable goes a step further, scrunching down the hashCode even further to an even smaller number that it can use to directly index an array, usually by dividing it by some (ideally prime) number and taking the remainder.
HashSet creates a collection that uses a hash table for storage
I hope this helps