set variable inside function to pass to another function php

Im struggling a bit, i can’t pass variable between functions. many examples show the code as i tested but it won’t work for me for some reason.

Im building theme for wordpress and i need options panel for a theme.

For options panel i have a function that is called options_theme() and that function should display options page.

But as i want dynamic fields i have build 2 more functions theme_options() which is an array of fields, and another is theme_fields() which display fields based on theme_options() array. This is not a problem because this works, but im just explaining what are those functions.

Problem is that i want dynamic fields which can be reusable many times and for that i just need to switch calling theme_options on each function separately.

This is the code i have for now: this is admin/index.php page which holds function that display fields with their options

function options_theme() {
require_once( THEMEPATH . 'admin/fields.php' );

global $settings, $options;

$settings = get_option($option_name);
$options =& _theme_options();

    <-- Here goes some html for options page -->
    now display fields
    theme_fields()
 }

The function above should set options name in $settings and get an array of theme options in $options than finally display fields in theme_fields.

Problem is that i get an error that $options and $settings are not set.

This is how functions theme_fields() works

function theme_fields() {
    global $settings, $options;

    foreach( $options as $field) {
          display fields
    }
}

To be able to use theme_fields() on different pages i need to be able to set $options and $settings per page, for that i need to set $options and $settings outside of theme_fields() like in example i posted above. but it doesn’t work.

If i set it like this

function theme_fields() {
$settings = get_option($option_name);
$options =& _theme_options();

    foreach( $options as $field) {
          display fields
    }
}

it works.

How do i set values of $settings and $options outside theme_fields() so i can use it multiple times on different pages like this.

function options_theme() {
require_once( THEMEPATH . 'admin/fields.php' );

global $settings, $options;

$settings = get_option($option_name);
$options =& _theme_options();

    <-- Here goes some html for options page -->
    now display fields
    theme_fields()
 }

function options_widgets() {
require_once( THEMEPATH . 'admin/fields.php' );

global $settings, $options;

$settings = get_option($option_name);
$options =& _theme_widgets();

    <-- Here goes some html for options page -->
    now display fields
    theme_fields()
 }