string basename ( string $path [, string $suffix ] )

1. PATH :: A path. On Windows, both slash (/) and backslash (\) are used as directory separator character. In other environments, it is the forward slash (/).
   suffix.
2. SUFFIX :: If the filename ends in suffix this will also be cut off.

I use this a lot to distinguish which page I am on. Generally, I would match this to a db record to get page-specific info and settings from the database.