Index: Include/unicodeobject.h
===================================================================
--- Include/unicodeobject.h	(Revision 59424)
+++ Include/unicodeobject.h	(Arbeitskopie)
@@ -1330,6 +1330,11 @@
     const char *right
     );
 
+PyAPI_FUNC(int) _PyUnicode_Eq(
+    PyObject *left,		/* Left string */
+    PyObject *right		/* Right string */
+    );
+
 /* Rich compare two strings and return one of the following:
 
    - NULL in case an exception was raised
Index: Objects/unicodeobject.c
===================================================================
--- Objects/unicodeobject.c	(Revision 59424)
+++ Objects/unicodeobject.c	(Arbeitskopie)
@@ -95,6 +95,9 @@
 extern "C" {
 #endif
 
+/* forward declarations */
+static long unicode_hash(PyUnicodeObject *);
+
 /* This dictionary holds all interned unicode strings.  Note that references
    to strings in this dictionary are *not* counted in the string's ob_refcnt.
    When the interned string reaches a refcnt of 0 the string deallocation
@@ -6349,6 +6352,18 @@
     return PyBool_FromLong(result);
 }
 
+/* optimized version used by Objects/setobject.c */
+int
+_PyUnicode_Eq(PyObject *o1, PyObject *o2)
+{
+	PyUnicodeObject *a = (PyUnicodeObject*) o1;
+	PyUnicodeObject *b = (PyUnicodeObject*) o2;
+	return Py_Size(a) == Py_Size(b)
+		&& unicode_hash(a) == unicode_hash(b)
+		&& unicode_compare(a, b) == 0;
+}
+
+
 int PyUnicode_Contains(PyObject *container,
 		       PyObject *element)
 {
Index: Objects/setobject.c
===================================================================
--- Objects/setobject.c	(Revision 59424)
+++ Objects/setobject.c	(Arbeitskopie)
@@ -50,6 +50,20 @@
 	INIT_NONZERO_SET_SLOTS(so);				\
     } while(0)
 
+#define GET_HASH(hash, key) do {				\
+	hash = -1;						\
+	if (PyUnicode_CheckExact(key)) {			\
+		hash = ((PyUnicodeObject *) key)->hash;		\
+	} else if (PyString_CheckExact(key)) {			\
+		hash = ((PyStringObject *) key)->ob_shash;	\
+	}							\
+	if (hash == -1) {					\
+		hash = PyObject_Hash(key);			\
+		if (hash == -1)					\
+			return -1;				\
+	}							\
+	} while(0)
+
 /* Reuse scheme to save calls to malloc, free, and memset */
 #define MAXFREESETS 80
 static PySetObject *free_sets[MAXFREESETS];
@@ -145,11 +159,11 @@
 
 /*
  * Hacked up version of set_lookkey which can assume keys are always strings;
- * This means we can always use _PyString_Eq directly and not have to check to
+ * This means we can always use _PyUnicode_Eq directly and not have to check to
  * see if the comparison altered the table.
  */
 static setentry *
-set_lookkey_string(PySetObject *so, PyObject *key, register long hash)
+set_lookkey_unicode(PySetObject *so, PyObject *key, register long hash)
 {
 	register Py_ssize_t i;
 	register size_t perturb;
@@ -157,12 +171,19 @@
 	register size_t mask = so->mask;
 	setentry *table = so->table;
 	register setentry *entry;
+	int (*eq)(PyObject *, PyObject *);
 
 	/* Make sure this function doesn't have to handle non-string keys,
 	   including subclasses of str; e.g., one reason to subclass
 	   strings is to override __eq__, and for speed we don't cater to
 	   that here. */
-	if (!PyString_CheckExact(key)) {
+	if (PyUnicode_CheckExact(key)) {
+		eq = _PyUnicode_Eq;
+	}
+	else if (PyString_CheckExact(key)) {
+		eq = _PyString_Eq;
+	}
+	else {
 		so->lookup = set_lookkey;
 		return set_lookkey(so, key, hash);
 	}
@@ -173,7 +194,7 @@
 	if (entry->key == dummy)
 		freeslot = entry;
 	else {
-		if (entry->hash == hash && _PyString_Eq(entry->key, key))
+		if (entry->hash == hash && eq(entry->key, key))
 			return entry;
 		freeslot = NULL;
 	}
@@ -188,7 +209,7 @@
 		if (entry->key == key
 		    || (entry->hash == hash
 			&& entry->key != dummy
-			&& _PyString_Eq(entry->key, key)))
+			&& eq(entry->key, key)))
 			return entry;
 		if (entry->key == dummy && freeslot == NULL)
 			freeslot = entry;
@@ -375,12 +396,8 @@
 	register long hash;
 	register Py_ssize_t n_used;
 
-	if (!PyString_CheckExact(key) ||
-	    (hash = ((PyStringObject *) key)->ob_shash) == -1) {
-		hash = PyObject_Hash(key);
-		if (hash == -1)
-			return -1;
-	}
+	GET_HASH(hash, key);
+
 	assert(so->fill <= so->mask);  /* at least one empty slot */
 	n_used = so->used;
 	Py_INCREF(key);
@@ -422,12 +439,9 @@
 	PyObject *old_key;
 
 	assert (PyAnySet_Check(so));
-	if (!PyString_CheckExact(key) ||
-	    (hash = ((PyStringObject *) key)->ob_shash) == -1) {
-		hash = PyObject_Hash(key);
-		if (hash == -1)
-			return -1;
-	}
+
+	GET_HASH(hash, key);
+
 	entry = (so->lookup)(so, key, hash);
 	if (entry == NULL)
 		return -1;
@@ -668,12 +682,8 @@
 	long hash;
 	setentry *entry;
 
-	if (!PyString_CheckExact(key) ||
-	    (hash = ((PyStringObject *) key)->ob_shash) == -1) {
-		hash = PyObject_Hash(key);
-		if (hash == -1)
-			return -1;
-	}
+	GET_HASH(hash, key);
+
 	entry = (so->lookup)(so, key, hash);
 	if (entry == NULL)
 		return -1;
@@ -989,7 +999,7 @@
 		INIT_NONZERO_SET_SLOTS(so);
 	}
 
-	so->lookup = set_lookkey_string;
+	so->lookup = set_lookkey_unicode;
 	so->weakreflist = NULL;
 
 	if (iterable != NULL) {
Index: Lib/test/test_set.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_set.py	(Revision 59424)
+++ Lib/test/test_set.py	(Arbeitskopie)
@@ -817,6 +817,26 @@
         self.length = 3
         self.repr   = None
 
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+class TestBasicOpsString(TestBasicOps):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.case   = "string set"
+        self.values = ["a", "b", "c"]
+        self.set    = set(self.values)
+        self.dup    = set(self.values)
+        self.length = 3
+        self.repr   = "{'a', 'c', 'b'}"
+
+class TestBasicOpsBytes(TestBasicOps):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.case   = "string set"
+        self.values = [b"a", b"b", b"c"]
+        self.set    = set(self.values)
+        self.dup    = set(self.values)
+        self.length = 3
+        self.repr   = "{b'a', b'c', b'b'}"
+
 #==============================================================================
 
 def baditer():
@@ -1581,6 +1601,8 @@
         TestBasicOpsSingleton,
         TestBasicOpsTuple,
         TestBasicOpsTriple,
+        TestBasicOpsString,
+        TestBasicOpsBytes,
         TestBinaryOps,
         TestUpdateOps,
         TestMutate,