How to write a url rewrite in nginx?

The code above will not work because of a missing $ and poor use of the return command.

The code below works with Nginx, including version 0.8.54.

Format below is :

1. DesiredURL
2. Actual URL
3. Nginx_Rule

They must be inside location / {}

http://example.com/notes/343
http://example.com/notes.php?id=343

rewrite ^/notes/(.*)$ /notes.php?id=$1 last;

http://example.com/users/BlackBenzKid
http://example.com/user.php?username=BlackBenzKid

rewrite ^/users/(.*)$ /user.php?username=$1 last;

http://example.com/top
http://example.com/top.php

rewrite ^/top?$ /top.php last;

Complex and further

http://example.com/users/BlackBenzKid/gallery
http://example.com/user.php?username=BlackBenzKid&page=gallery

rewrite ^/users/(.*)/gallery$ /user.php?username=$1&page=gallery last;