Get last dirname/filename in a file path argument in Bash

Question

basename does remove the directory prefix of a path:

$ basename /usr/local/svn/repos/example
example
$ echo "/server/root/$(basename /usr/local/svn/repos/example)"
/server/root/example

The following approach can be used to get any path of a pathname:

some_path=a/b/c
echo $(basename $some_path)
echo $(basename $(dirname $some_path))
echo $(basename $(dirname $(dirname $some_path)))

Output:

c
b
a

Bash can get the last part of a path without having to call the external basename:

subdir="/path/to/whatever/${1##*/}"