where did hashcat get the hashtype?

Just a simple question: Where did hashcat get the hashtype?
So, i have a simple command. Something like


And in my example.hash are md5 hashes - does hashcat know the hashtype because of the specific pattern of md5? What if my example.hash only holds sha256 hashes - here the same? Does this mean, i don't need to give hashcat a parameter for the hashtype?
Sorry for the weird question.