Issue with the C2447 error message

[SecretAgentMan]

Hey, this is a definite noob question here, but I am absolutely stumped. Here's what's happening:

I'm trying to modifying an existing open-source game in C++, and I'm trying to compile a particular application. Problem is, I keep getting the following error message:

k:\old esms source code\league_table.cpp(8) : error C2447: '{' : missing function header (old-style formal list?)

First off, I'll admit that I know next to nothing about C++- I'm basically feeling my way around in the dark, as it were. However, I understand that this particular error message typically means that there is a misplaced semi-colon. This particular example, though, is right at the very beginning of the code, and I can't see any sign of such a semi-colon (maybe I'm missing it).

The program was originally written in C and converted to C++, so perhaps the issue is there.

Here are the relevant lines of code (the full code is 250+ lines long). Any help that could be offered would be appreciated.

// ESMS - Electronic Soccer Management Simulator
// Copyright (C) <1998-2005>  Eli Bendersky
//
// This program is free software, licensed with the GPL (www.fsf.org)
// 
#include "league_table.h"

{ bool team_data_predicate(league_table::team_data data1 , league_table::team_data data2)
{
    if (data1.points != data2.points)
        return data1.points > data2.points;
    else
    {
        if (data1.goal_difference != data2.goal_difference)
            return data1.goal_difference > data2.goal_difference;
        else
            return data1.goals_for > data2.goals_for;
    }
}

[helios]

{ bool team_

That brace doesn't belong there.

[hxslacker]

Hi.I am a newhand too.However I think there definitely exists an unnecessary '}' in line 8.
Hope this helps.

[SecretAgentMan]

I suspect that the brace is for the end of the program, 250+ lines down (I think).

When I remove it and try to re-compile, I get the following error messages:

k:\old esms source code\league_table.cpp(252) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'
k:\old esms source code\league_table.cpp(252) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '}'
k:\old esms source code\league_table.cpp(252) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'


Anything else up at the top of the program that might do it?

[SecretAgentMan]

Line 252, by the way, is just a bracket

}

I've tried to trace it, but best as I can tell, it's connected to that bracket in front of the boolean at the beginning.

[SecretAgentMan]

Upon removing the bracket at the end, I receive something like 16 error messages, all talking about unresolved external symbols

[helios]

Sigh... Nobody listens.

[SecretAgentMan]

?

My apologies if I missed something.

Does the brace not belong in the code at all, or should it be moved elsewhere?

[helios]

It shouldn't exist at all.

[SecretAgentMan]

Well, I did remove it, but then the aforementioned code problems popped up.

Those I have no clue how to fix whatsoever.

Sorry- I know that I'm a noob at this- Just can't seem to figure this one out.

[SecretAgentMan]

Just to clarify: I don't think I made this clear

When I removed the brace from the code entirely, I got this:

k:\old esms source code\league_table.cpp(252) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'
k:\old esms source code\league_table.cpp(252) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '}'
k:\old esms source code\league_table.cpp(252) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'

Down at the end of the code.

[helios]

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood what you said.

If there's any syntax error, it's coming from elsewhere in your code. Without that brace, the fragment you posted is valid.

[SecretAgentMan]

Hmm. I'm afraid I'm in for a rough time, in that case, but I probably should be, because I'm not 100% sure how this program even works the way it does anyway.