PHP mod_rewrite scheme. Using $_PATH[]

<?php
 
// We need to the get the path to THIS file so we know where it's located.
$url_current_location = substr($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], 0, strrpos($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], "/")).'/';
 
// We also need the full URI from the address bar.
$url_full_uri = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
 
// By removing everything the path to THIS file from the full URI we are left with nothing but the our $_PATH variables.
$url_rewritten_uri = str_replace($url_current_location, '', $url_full_uri);
 
// If $_GET variables are set, remove them from $_PATH
if($_GET)
{
	$url_rewritten_uri = substr($url_rewritten_uri, 0, strrpos($url_rewritten_uri, "?"));
}
 
// Create the $_PATH array. Think of this is as simliar to a $_GET or $_POST array, but we're left with an array that contains our rewritten path.
$_PATH = explode('/', $url_rewritten_uri);
 
// Remove empty values caused by multiple or trailing slashes.
while(list($key, $value) = each($_PATH))
{
	if(empty($value))
	{
		unset($_PATH[$key]);
	}
}
 
// I want the total number of values in $_PATH so that later on I can easily find out how many segments are in the requested path.
$path_segment_count = count($_PATH);
 
// Now we'll add the segment count to $_PATH to make retreiving the segment count more convenient.
// In case there were multiple or trailing slashes in the URI, this will also reset the array keys to start at [0] and increment by 1.
$_PATH = array_merge(array($path_segment_count), $_PATH);
 
?>