Project · Rust Programming

Project: stock register for a medical shop

Projectintermediate· about 6 hours· 6 steps

The brief

Build the stock register of a neighbourhood medical shop. Medicines are structs with an enum for their form (tablet, syrup, cream); a stock file is parsed line by line into a Vec with a custom error type; a HashMap gives the stock value per form; iterators build the reorder list; a trait works out GST on a sale (example rates); and finally the code moves into its own module.

Why it matters

Pharmacies, kirana stores and warehouses all run on the same core: typed records, input that is often wrong, totals by category, low-stock alerts and a sale that must fail cleanly when stock is short. This project uses the exact Rust tools a backend or tools developer reaches for every day: struct, enum, match, Result with ?, Vec, HashMap, iterator chains, traits and modules.

Skills you practise

struct and impl
enum with match
custom error enum with Display
Result, ? and ok_or_else
Vec and HashMap with entry()
iterator chains: filter, map, sum, sort_by_key
a trait with a default method
mod and pub across files

You need

Rust stable installed with rustup
A terminal and an editor (VS Code with rust-analyzer)

What you will have at the end

A medstock cargo project with src/stock.rs (types, errors, trait and functions) and a short main.rs that loads stock, reports bad lines, values the stock, lists reorders and sells with GST.

How it is marked (rubric, 100 points)

Correct resultsLoad counts, error lines, stock values, reorder order, sale lines, bill and remaining stock all match.	35
Types model the shopForm is an enum handled with match; StockError has one variant per problem with useful data and a Display message.	25
Idiomatic RustResult and ? instead of unwrap, entry() for totals, iterator chains, &[T] and &mut [T] parameters, a trait with a default method.	25
Organised codeA stock module with deliberate pub items, a short main.rs, no warnings.	15

0/6 steps done

Step 1 of 6

A Medicine struct and a Form enum

Three medicines built by hand print with their unit names: strips, bottles and tubes.

Create the project with cargo new medstock and copy the starter. Define enum Form { Tablet, Syrup, Cream } and give it a method unit(&self) -> &'static str that uses match to return "strip", "bottle" or "tube"; match must cover every variant, so adding a new form later forces you to handle it. Define struct Medicine with name: String, form: Form, stock: u32 and price_paise: u32. In main, make three medicines (Paracetamol 500 mg, tablet, 120, 2500; Cough syrup 100 ml, syrup, 15, 9500; Antiseptic cream 20 g, cream, 40, 6000) and print each one.

Run this on your machine, then paste the output below

$ cargo run

Your notes: src/main.rs

Write down each command you ran. It goes into your project summary.