pcre module help

[lists <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
	Can anyone provide an example for using the pcre module?  I've looked 
at the documentation and am unclear on what exactly pcre_compile, 
pcre_study, and pcre_match do.  Is in necessary to "compile" a pcre 
before using it?  Basically, I had intended on using the pcre module 
like this:

if [[ $variable == pcre ]] ; then
blah
fi

Thanks,
Ryan