error C2601: "Name": local function definitions are illegal - c++

Question

I'm new to C++ and learning about Inheritance and Polymorphism. We require to write an employee project that have 4 types of employee (BasePlusCommission, CommisisonEmployee, Salaried and TipWorker). My project has one main() class that I used switch method for each type of employee. I got stuck on TipWorker where we have to do Polymorphism. Here what I got so far.
int main()
{
void virtualViaPointer(const Employee * const);
{
cout << "Enter First Name: " << endl;
cin >> firstName;
cout << "Enter Last Name: " << endl;
cin >> lastName;
cout << "Enter SSN: " << endl;
cin >> SSN;
if (SSN.length() == 9)
{
SSN = true;
}
else
{
cout << "Please enter SSN again with 9 digits only:" << endl;
cin >> SSN;
}
cout << "Enter wages: " << endl;
cin >> wage;
cout << "Enter hours: " << endl;
cin >> hours;
cout << "Enter tips: " << endl;
cin >> tips;
TipWorker employee4(firstName, lastName, SSN, wage, hours, tips);
employee4.print();
cout << fixed << setprecision(2);
vector < Employee * > employees(1);
employees[0] = &employee4;
cout << "Employee processed polymorphically via dynamic binding: \n\n";
cout << "Virtual function calls made off base-class pointers:\n\n";
for (const Employee *employeePtr : employees)
virtualViaPointer(employeePtr);
void virtualViaPointer(const Employee * const baseClassPtr)
{
baseClassPtr->print();
cout << "\nEarned $" << baseClassPtr->earnings() << "\n\n";
}
break;
}
}
When I run the project, I came up with this error:
error C2601: "virtualViaPointer": local function definitions are
illegal
void virtualViaPointer(const Employee * const baseClassPtr)
{
baseClassPtr->print();
cout << "\nEarned $" << baseClassPtr->earnings() << "\n\n";
}
Can anyone please help me? Thank you so much!

Answer 1

You may not define one function inside an other function. Any function definition shall be outside any other function definition.
Place the definition of virtualViaPointer outside the body of main.

Answer 2

You can have a declaration of a function inside a function, but no definition(!) of that function. However, you can have a local struct/class or lambda in the function:
#include <iostream>
void f()
{
void print(); // mostly useless - maybe a most vexing parse error
struct Print {
static void apply(const char* s) { std::cout << s << '\n'; }
}
Print::apply("Hello");
auto lambda = [] (const char* s) { std::cout << s << '\n'; };
lambda("World");
}
Note: A local struct does not require C++11 (Also, it may look nicer while debugging)